Making oxygen: Novel catalytic transition metal oxide nanoparticles made by pulsed laser ablation in liquids

Abstract

Powering the Planet sustainably poses the greatest challenge to humankind. Harvesting solar energy by water splitting will set the stage for clean fuel generation, using Earth-abundant, environmentally friendly transition metal nanomaterial catalysts.We use pulsed laser ablation (PLA) in liqs. to synthesize novel nanomaterials with unique electronic and catalytic properties that are stable under anodic conditions, and that exhibit high oxygen-evolution efficiencies. Nanoparticle catalysts exhibit max. surface area and introduce addnl. benefits through the modulation of electronic properties as a result of quantum confinement. Transition metal oxides are the most promising catalytic materials for electrochem. oxygen evolution from water.We present a systematic study of cobalt oxide and mixed metal oxide nanoparticles made by PLA in water, which we synthesized as a function of irradn. intensity and time, with and without additives. We characterized the nanomaterials by absorption spectroscopy, ICPMS, XPS, TEM, and voltammetry, and we assessed their oxygen-evolution capability.