Seminar: Why electrolytes control the catalytic activity. An experimental approach
Prof. Dr. Aliaksandr Bandarenka is a young professor of the Department of Physics of Technische Universität München who made very substantial contributions to recent spectacular developments in electrocatalysis by his more than 100 articles includind several articles in Nature, Science, Angewandte Chemie and other top journals.
Today, 8th of April at 16h, he will give the seminar:
Why electrolytes control the catalytic activity. An experimental approach
Electrocatalysis normally tries to find a link between the electrode surface structure, its composition and the resulting activity to improve the performance of numerous devices, such as electrolyzers, fuel cells, and certain types of batteries.
However, this field currently encounters serious obstacles related to the prediction and explanation of an unexpected influence of seemingly inert electrolyte components on the activity.
In the presentation, results of systematic investigations of various electrocatalytic systems using a unique laser-induced current transient technique are discussed to approach the answer to a fundamental question: why can electrolytes control the activity so drastically? Different metal electrodes immersed in acidic solutions of different pHs and in near-to-neutral electrolytes containing Na+ and K+ served as model systems.