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  4. Mapping Electrochemical Heterogeneity at Gold Surfaces: A Second Harmonic Imaging Study
 
research article

Mapping Electrochemical Heterogeneity at Gold Surfaces: A Second Harmonic Imaging Study

Nahalka, Igor  
•
Zwaschka, Gregor
•
Campen, R. Kramer
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September 17, 2020
Journal Of Physical Chemistry C

Designing efficient catalysts requires correlating surface structure and local chemical composition with reactivity on length scales from nanometers to tens of microns. While much work has been done on this structure/function correlation on single crystals, comparatively little has been done for catalysts of relevance in applications. Such materials are typically highly heterogeneous and thus require methods that allow mapping of the structure/function relationship during electrochemical conversion. Here, we use optical second harmonic imaging combined with cyclic voltammetry to map the surface of gold nanocrystalline and polycrystalline electrodes during electrooxidation and to quantify the spatial extent of surface reconstruction during potential cycling. The wide-field configuration of our microscope allows for real-time imaging of an area similar to 100 mu m in diameter with submicron resolution. By analyzing the voltage dependence of each pixel, we uncover the heterogeneity of the second harmonic signal and quantify the fraction of domains where it follows a positive quadratic dependence with increasing bias. There, the second harmonic intensity is mainly ascribed to electronic polarization contributions at the metal/electrolyte interface. Additionally, we locate areas where the second harmonic signal follows a negative quadratic dependence with increasing bias, which also show the largest changes during successive cyclic voltammetry sweeps as determined by an additional correlation coefficient analysis. We assign these areas to domains of higher roughness that are prone to potential-induced surface restructuring and where anion adsorption occurs at lower potentials than expected based on the cyclic voltammetry.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.1021/acs.jpcc.0c02740
Web of Science ID

WOS:000574908200017

Author(s)
Nahalka, Igor  
Zwaschka, Gregor
Campen, R. Kramer
Marchioro, Arianna  
Roke, Sylvie  
Date Issued

2020-09-17

Published in
Journal Of Physical Chemistry C
Volume

124

Issue

37

Start page

20021

End page

20034

Subjects

Chemistry, Physical

•

Nanoscience & Nanotechnology

•

Materials Science, Multidisciplinary

•

Chemistry

•

Science & Technology - Other Topics

•

Materials Science

•

2nd harmonic-generation

•

in-situ shg

•

au(111) electrodes

•

adsorption

•

silver

•

spectroscopy

•

oxidation

•

phosphate

•

reconstruction

•

microscopy

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
NAM  
LBP  
Available on Infoscience
October 21, 2020
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/172642
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