Invited Paper IS+AS+SP-FrM5
Emerging Mesoscale Phenomena in Energy Conversion/Storage Characterized by In Situ Soft X-ray Spectroscopy

Friday, November 1, 2013, 9:40 am, Room 203 B

Advanced technology arises from the understanding in basic science, and both rest in large on in-situ/operando characterization tools for observing related physical and chemical processes directly at the places where and while reactions occur. In energy science, experimental insight into physical and chemical processes has been largely limited to information obtain with in a framework of thermodynamic and kinetic concepts or atomic and nanoscale. In many important energy systems such as energy conversion, energy storage and catalysis, advanced materials and fundamental phenomena play crucial roles in device performance and functionality due to the complexity of material architecture, chemistry and interactions among constituents within. To understand and ultimately control the interfaces in energy conversion and energy storage application calls for in-situ/operando characterization tools. Soft x-ray spectroscopy may offer some unique features. This presentation reports the development of in-situ reaction cells for soft x-ray spectroscopic towards the studies of photosynthesis and catalytic reactions in recent years. The challenge has been that soft x-rays cannot easily peek into a high-pressure catalytic cell or a liquid photoelectrochemical cell (PEC). The unique design of the in-situ cell has overcome the burden. Some of the instrumentation design and fabrication principle are to be presented, and a number of experimental studies of nanocatalysts are given as the examples, also the recent experiment performed for studying the hole generation in a specifically designed photoelectrochemical cell under operando conditions.