Lecture
BPOC Lecture: Electrocatalytic Water Splitting Under External Magnetic Fields: Mechanistic Understanding and Experimental Evidences
- Date
- Monday 20 January 2025
- Time
- Location
-
Gorlaeus Building
Einsteinweg 55
2333 CC Leiden - Room
- DM.1.09
We have the pleasure to announce a lecture of Prof. dr. José Ramón Galán-Mascarós from the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia - ICIQ, in Spain.
Professor Galán-Mascarós is a guest of Huub de Groot and will serve as an Examining committee member in the PhD defence of Tirong Guo on 21 January.
Abstract
Electrocatalytic water splitting is generally regarded as the most environmental-friendly and sustainable pathway for green hydrogen production. However, the energy efficiency of water electrolysis is hampered mostly by the anodic process, where the sluggish oxygen evolution reaction (OER) requires excessively high overpotentials to proceed at relevant current densities. This high overpotentials needed are partly due to complexity of this 4e– process requiring the generation of a O2 molecule with ground triplet state. Because of this, spin polarization upon the catalytic entities has been proposed to improve the efficiency of the process, in order to favor parallel spin alignment in the product.
One successful strategy towards this aim has been realized through the chiral-induced spin selectivity(CISS) effect [1]. Following this strategy, improved OER kinetics are promoted when a catalytic surface is decorated with chiral organic molecules, which has been assigned to the spin-filtering power of the enantiopure molecules as mediators in the charge transfer processes.
Another plausible strategy to achieve improved OER kinetics points towards the use of external magnetic fields, which are able to favor spin alignment of open shell radicals to form an open shell O–O bond [2]. In this talk we will present our latest results on the effects of magnetic fields to accelerate the OER anodic reaction during water splitting. We will demonstrate, with experimental evidences, how the applied magnetic field is able to modify the OER reaction mechanism at the catalytic surface [3], discarding any indirect effects or experimental artefacts behind this intriguing phenomenon.
References
- Mondal, P.C. et al.. Spin-dependent transport through chiral molecules studied by spin-dependent electrochemistry. Acc. Chem. Res. 2016, 49, 2560–2568
- Garcés-Pineda, F. A. et al. J. R. Direct magnetic enhancement of electrocatalytic water oxidation in alkaline media. Nat. Energy 2019, 4, 519–525
- Mesa, C. A. et al. Experimental evidences of the direct influence of external magnetic fields on the mechanism of the electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction APL Energy 2024, 2, 016106
Biography
JR Galan-Mascaros received his PhD in Chemical Sciences from University of Valencia in 1999. After a postdoctoral research stay at Texas A&M University (1999-2001, USA), he joined as “Ramon y Cajal” fellow the Institute of Molecular Science (University of Valencia), where he started his independent career, as I3 researcher, in 2007. In 2009, he moved to the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ) in Tarragona, Spain, as ICREA Research Professor and group leader, his current position.
His research career has been essentially multidisciplinary, taking advantage of the tools offered by coordination chemistry to design novel materials for applications in different fields, with particular interest in multifunctional smart materials and solar fuels. He has published over 240 papers, including 10 book chapters; given over 50 plenary and invited lectures; and co-authored over 200 talks and poster presentations in conferences and workshops. He is co-inventor of five patents, and the founder and scientific advisor of the start-up company Orchestra Scientific S.L. His work has been recognized with several awards, including the “Excelencia Investigadora” 2019 award by the RSEQ; the Olivier Kahn international 2008 award by the European Institute of Molecular Magnetism; the “IDEA:Technology” 2006 award by the Fundació Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències. From 2017 to 2021, he coordinated the European H2020 collaborative project A-LEAF (H2020-FET-PROACTIVE), one of the most important initiative towards the realization of solar fuels.