Absolute Potential of Supported Catalysts

Equation (7.32) underlines the pinning of the Fermi levels of metal electrodes with the solid electrolyte and reminds the fact that the absolute electrode potential is a property of the solid electrolyte and of the gaseous composition but not of the electrode material.21 

Consequently the absolute potential is a material property which can be used to characterize solid electrolyte materials, several of which, as discussed in Chapter 11, are used increasingly in recent years as high surface area catalyst supports. This in turn implies that the Fermi level of dispersed metal catalysts supported on such carriers will be pinned to the Fermi level (or absolute potential) of the carrier (support). As discussed in Chapter 11 this is intimately related to the effect of metal-support interactions, which is of central importance in heterogeneous catalysis. 

Bockris, and S.U.M. Khan, Fermi levels in solution, Appl. Phys. Lett. 42(1), 124-125 (1983). 

Frumkin, and B. Damaskin, Real free solvation energy of an electron in a solution in equilibrium with the electrode and its dependence on the solvent nature,/. Electroanal. Chem. 79, 259-266 (1977). 

Frumkin, and B.B. Damaskin, Work function of solvated electrons (in Russian), Dokl. Akad. Nauk. SSR. 221(2), 395-398 (1975). 

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