In-situ Quantification of Nanoparticles Oxidation: A Fixed Energy X-ray Absorption Approach
Enrico Berretti,
Andrea Giaccherini,
Giordano Montegrossi,
Francesco D’Acapito,
Francesco Di Benedetto,
Claudio Zafferoni,
Alessandro Puri,
Giovanni Orazio Lepore,
Hamish Miller,
Walter Giurlani,
Massimo Innocenti,
Francesco Vizza,
Alessandro Lavacchi
Affiliations
Enrico Berretti
Institute for the Chemistry of Organometallic Compounds, Italian National Research Council (ICCOM-CNR), 50019 Florence, Italy
Andrea Giaccherini
Department of Industrial Engineering “DIEF”, University of Florence, 50139 Florence, Italy
Giordano Montegrossi
Institute of Geosciences and Earth Resources, Italian National Research Council (IGG-CNR), 50121 Florence, Italy
Francesco D’Acapito
Operative Group Grenoble, Istituto Officina dei Materiali, Italian National Research Council (CNR-IOM-OGG) c/o European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), F-38043 Grenoble, France
Francesco Di Benedetto
Earth Sciences Department, University of Florence, 50121 Florence, Italy
Claudio Zafferoni
Chemistry Department, University of Florence, 50019 Florence, Italy
Alessandro Puri
Operative Group Grenoble, Istituto Officina dei Materiali, Italian National Research Council (CNR-IOM-OGG) c/o European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), F-38043 Grenoble, France
Giovanni Orazio Lepore
Operative Group Grenoble, Istituto Officina dei Materiali, Italian National Research Council (CNR-IOM-OGG) c/o European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), F-38043 Grenoble, France
Hamish Miller
Institute for the Chemistry of Organometallic Compounds, Italian National Research Council (ICCOM-CNR), 50019 Florence, Italy
Walter Giurlani
Chemistry Department, University of Florence, 50019 Florence, Italy
Massimo Innocenti
Chemistry Department, University of Florence, 50019 Florence, Italy
Francesco Vizza
Institute for the Chemistry of Organometallic Compounds, Italian National Research Council (ICCOM-CNR), 50019 Florence, Italy
Alessandro Lavacchi
Institute for the Chemistry of Organometallic Compounds, Italian National Research Council (ICCOM-CNR), 50019 Florence, Italy
The oxidation of palladium nanoparticles causes the performance degradation of alkaline direct ethanol fuel cells. Quantifying this oxidation is a task of tremendous importance to design mitigation strategies that extend the service life of catalysts and devices. Here, we show that the Fixed Energy X-ray Absorption Voltammetry (FEXRAV) can provide this information with an in-situ approach. To do so, we have developed a quantification method that assumes the linear response at fixed energy. With this method, we have investigated the oxidation of carbon black-supported palladium electrocatalysts during cyclic voltammetry in the same solution employed as a fuel in the direct ethanol fuel cells. We have shown that up to 38% of the palladium is oxidised at 1.2 V vs. RHE and that such oxidation also happens at lower potentials that the catalyst can experience in real direct ethanol fuel cells. The result of this study is a proof of concept of quantitative FEXRAV.
