Oxidation state

Abstract: The high catalytic activity of gold clusters on oxides has been attributed to structural effects (including particle thickness and shape and metal oxidation state), as well as to support effects. We have created well-ordered gold mono-layers and bilayers that completely wet (cover) the oxide support, thus eliminating particle shape and direct support effects. High-resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy and carbon monoxide adsorption confirm that the gold atoms are bonded to titanium atoms. Kinetic measurements for the catalytic oxidation of carbon monoxide show that the gold bilayer structure is significantly more active (by more than an order of magnitude) than the monolayer.

Abstract: There is a growing interest in oxygen electrochemistry as conversions between O(2) and H(2)O play an important role in a variety of renewable energy technologies. The goal of this work is to develop active bifunctional catalyst materials for water oxidation and oxygen reduction. Drawing inspiration from a cubane-like CaMn(4)O(x), the biological catalyst found in the oxygen evolving center (OEC) in photosystem II, nanostructured manganese oxide surfaces were investigated for these reactions. Thin films of nanostructured manganese oxide were found to be active for both oxygen reduction and water oxidation, with similar overall oxygen electrode activity to the best known precious metal nanoparticle catalysts: platinum, ruthenium, and iridium. Physical and chemical characterization of the nanostructured Mn oxide bifunctional catalyst reveals an oxidation state of Mn(III), akin to one of the most commonly observed Mn oxidation states found in the OEC.

Abstract: High-resolution Fe K-edge XANES spectra of a series of crystalline Fe 2+ - and Fe 3+ -bearing model compounds were measured in an effort to correlate characteristics of the pre-edge feature with oxidation state and local coordination environment of Fe atoms. The model compounds comprise 30 natural minerals and synthetic compounds, with Fe coordination environments ranging from 4 to 12 O atoms for Fe 2+ , including 5-coordinated trigonal bipyramidal Fe 2+ , and from 4 to 6 O atoms for Fe 3+ . Most pre-edge spectra show two components (due to crystal-field splitting) that are located just above the Fermi level. The most useful characteristics of the Fe-K pre-edge for determining Fe oxidation state and coordination number are the position of its centroid and its integrated intensity. The separation between the average pre-edge centroid positions for Fe 2+ and Fe 3+ is 1.4 ± 0.1 eV. Thus, the position of the pre-edge feature can be used as a measure of the average Fe-redox state, with the average pre-edge position for mixed Fe 2+ -Fe 3+ compounds occurring between positions for Fe 2+ and Fe 3+ . The lowest pre-edge normalized heights and integrated intensities are observed for the most centrosymmetric sites of Fe, in agreement with previous studies (see Waychunas et al. 1983). Examination of the pre-edge features of mechanical mixtures of phases containing different proportions of Fe 2+ and Fe 3+ suggests that the pre-edge position and intensity for these mixtures can vary quite non-linearly with the average redox state of Fe. However, distinctly different trends of pre-edge position vs. pre-edge intensity can be observed, depending on the coordination environment of Fe 2+ and Fe 3+ , with an accuracy in redox determination of ±10 mol% provided that the site geometry for each redox state is known. These methods have been used to estimate the Fe 3+ /Fe 2+ ratio in 12 minerals (magnetite, vesuvianite, franklinite, rhodonite, etc.) containing variable/unknown amounts of Fe 2+ /Fe 3+ .