Raman spectroscopy electrode surfaces

Of special Interest as O2 reduction electrocatalysts are the transition metal macrocycles In the form of layers adsorptlvely attached, chemically bonded or simply physically deposited on an electrode substrate Some of these complexes catalyze the 4-electron reduction of O2 to H2O or 0H while others catalyze principally the 2-electron reduction to the peroxide and/or the peroxide elimination reactions. Various situ spectroscopic techniques have been used to examine the state of these transition metal macrocycle layers on carbon, graphite and metal substrates under various electrochemical conditions. These techniques have Included (a) visible reflectance spectroscopy (b) laser Raman spectroscopy, utilizing surface enhanced Raman scattering and resonant Raman and (c) Mossbauer spectroscopy. This paper will focus on principally the cobalt and Iron phthalocyanlnes and porphyrins. 

Using standard Raman spectroscopy for surface studies leads to rather tedious experiments because of its generally very low sensitivity. In contrast, SERS often provides high sensitivity due to a giant enhancement. The first paper on SERS pubhshed by the Van Duyne group reported a million-fold enhanced Raman intensity for pyridine molecules adsorbed on a silver electrode compared with the Raman intensity for unbound pyridine molecules [21]. Hence, SERS makes it possible to detect submonolayer quantities of adsorbates. 

Besides infrared reflection spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, particularly surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), is able to provide information about the structure of the electrode/electrolyte interface through the identification of adsorbed species from their vibrational spectra/ However, Raman spectroscopy is not of as general use as infrared spectroscopy, and the basis of the enhancement mechanism, which is observed only for a limited number of systems (e.g., adsorption of pyridine on a silver electrode), is not yet very clear/ Surface-enhanced Raman scattering is discussed by Birke and Lombardi in Chapter 6 of this book. 

Figure Bl.22.6. Raman spectra in the C-H stretching region from 2-butanol (left frame) and 2-butanethiol (right), each either as bulk liquid (top traces) or adsorbed on a rough silver electrode surface (bottom). An analysis of the relative intensities of the different vibrational modes led to tire proposed adsorption structures depicted in the corresponding panels [53], This example illustrates the usefiilness of Raman spectroscopy for the detennination of adsorption geometries, but also points to its main limitation, namely the need to use rough silver surfaces to achieve adequate signal-to-noise levels.

Film-forming chemical reactions and the chemical composition of the film formed on lithium in nonaqueous aprotic liquid electrolytes are reviewed by Dominey [7], SEI formation on carbon and graphite anodes in liquid electrolytes has been reviewed by Dahn et al. [8], In addition to the evolution of new systems, new techniques have recently been adapted to the study of the electrode surface and the chemical and physical properties of the SEI. The most important of these are X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), SEM, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), FTIR, NMR, EPR, calorimetry, DSC, TGA, use of quartz-crystal microbalance (QCMB) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). 

QCMB RAM SBR SEI SEM SERS SFL SHE SLI SNIFTIRS quartz crystal microbalance rechargeable alkaline manganese dioxide-zinc styrene-butadiene rubber solid electrolyte interphase scanning electron microscopy surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy sulfolane-based electrolyte standard hydrogen electrode starter-light-ignition subtractively normalized interfacial Fourier transform infrared... 

The vibrations of molecular bonds provide insight into bonding and stmcture. This information can be obtained by infrared spectroscopy (IRS), laser Raman spectroscopy, or electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS). IRS and EELS have provided a wealth of data about the stmcture of catalysts and the bonding of adsorbates. IRS has also been used under reaction conditions to follow the dynamics of adsorbed reactants, intermediates, and products. Raman spectroscopy has provided exciting information about the precursors involved in the synthesis of catalysts and the stmcture of adsorbates present on catalyst and electrode surfaces. 

Some of the transition metal macrocycles adsorbed on electrode surfaces are of special Interest because of their high catalytic activity for dloxygen reduction. The Interaction of the adsorbed macrocycles with the substrate and their orientation are of Importance In understanding the factors controlling their catalytic activity. In situ spectroscopic techniques which have been used to examine these electrocatalytlc layers Include visible reflectance spectroscopy surface enhanced and resonant Raman and Mossbauer effect spectroscopy. This paper Is focused principally on the cobalt and Iron phthalocyanlnes on silver and carbon electrode substrates. 

Possible applications include optical coatings [98], catalysts [99-101], substrates for Surface Enhanced Raman spectroscopy [102] or biosensor electrodes [103], Mesoporous gold can be prepared by de-aHoying a suitable precursor such as a... 

Fedchenfeld, H. and Weaver, M.J. (1989) Binding of alkynes to silver, gold, and underpotential deposited silver electrodes as deduced by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. The Journal of Physical Chemistry, 93, 4276—4282. 

In most work on electrochemical systems, use is made of two effects that greatly enhance the Raman signals. One is resonance Raman spectroscopy (RRS), wherein the excitation wavelength corresponds to an electronic transition in an adsorbed molecule on an electrode surface. The other effect is surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), which occurs on certain surfaces, such as electrochemically roughened silver and gold. This effect, discovered by Fleischmann et al. (1974), yields enhancements of 10 to 10 . The vast majority of publications on Raman studies of electrochemical systems use SERS. The limitations of SERS are that it occurs on only a few metals and the mechanism of the enhancement is not understood. There is speculation that only a small part of the surface is involved in the effect. There is a very good review of SERS (Pemberton, 1991). 

Interfacial water molecules play important roles in many physical, chemical and biological processes. A molecular-level understanding of the structural arrangement of water molecules at electrode/electrolyte solution interfaces is one of the most important issues in electrochemistry. The presence of oriented water molecules, induced by interactions between water dipoles and electrode and by the strong electric field within the double layer has been proposed [39-41]. It has also been proposed that water molecules are present at electrode surfaces in the form of clusters [42, 43]. Despite the numerous studies on the structure of water at metal electrode surfaces using various techniques such as surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy [44, 45], surface infrared spectroscopy [46, 47[, surface enhanced infrared spectroscopy [7, 8] and X-ray diffraction [48, 49[, the exact nature of the structure of water at an electrode/solution interface is still not fully understood. 

Pettinger, B., Philpott, M. R. and Gordon, J. G. (1981) Contribution of specifically adsorbed ions, water, and impurities to the surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) of Ag electrodes. 

Leopold et al. and Nyholm et al. have investigated this oscillatory system by in situ confocal Raman spectroscopy [43], and in situ electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance [44], and in situ pH measurement [45] with the focus being on darification of the osdllation mechanism. Based on the experimental results, a mechanism for the oscillations was proposed, in which variations in local pH close to the electrode surface play an essential role. Cu is deposited at the lower potentials ofthe oscillation followed by a simultaneous increase in pH close to the surface due to the protonation... 

Beltramo G, Shubina TE, Koper MTM. 2005. Oxidation of formic acid and carbon monoxide on gold electrodes studied by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy and DFT. ChemPhysChem 6 2597-2606. 

In recent years,3 4 however, there has been renewed interest in the study of the electrode/solution interface due in part to the development of new spectroscopic techniques such as surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy,5-7 electrochemically modulated infrared reflectance spectroscopy and related techniques,8,9 second-harmonic generation,10-12 and others which give information about the identity and orientation of molecular species in the interfacial... 

Carrabba M.M., Edmonds R.B., Rauh, R.D., Feasibility studies for the detection of organic-surface and subsurface water contaminants by surface-enhanced Raman-spectroscopy on silver electrodes, Anal. Chem. 1987 59 2559-2563. 

Koglin E., Sequaris J.M., Valenta P., Surface enhanced Raman-spectroscopy of nucleic-acid bases on Ag electrodes, J. Molecular Struct. 1982 79 185-189. 

Metal dissolution is the inverse process to the deposition so its principles can be derived from preceding considerations. It should, however, be borne in mind that the preferred sites for deposition need not be the same as those for the dissolution. This is particularly true if the reactions are far from equilibrium. Therefore, rapid cycling of the potential between the deposition and the dissolution region can lead to a substantial roughening of the electrode surface, which can be used in techniques such as surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (see Chapter 15 ), which require a large surface area. 

Fortunately, in favorable cases enhancement mechanisms operate which increase the signal from the interface by a factor of 105 — 106, so that spectra of good quality can be observed - hence the name surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). However, these mechanisms seem to operate only on metals with broad free-electron-like bands, in particular on the sp metals copper, silver and gold. Furthermore, the electrodes must be roughened on a microscopic scale. These conditions severely limit the applicability of Raman spectroscopy to electrochemical interfaces. Nevertheless, SERS is a fascinating phenomenon, and though not universally applicable, it can yield valuable information on many interesting systems, and its usefulness is expected to increase as instrumentation and preparation techniques improve. 

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has been widely used to study the interaction of solvent molecules with the electrode surface, including orientation at the interface. The first observation of the Raman... 

Ever since Albrecht and Creighton [85], and Jenmarie and van Duyne [86], observed that the Raman cross-section for pyridine absorbed on a roughened silver electrode was larger than that in solution by six orders of magnitude, surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has steadily gained ground in analytical instrumentation. The sensitivity of this technique... 

An investigation of the adsorption of pyrazine and pyridine on nickel electrodes by in situ surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy was reported in [44]. The result suggests that both pyrazine and pyridine were strongly adsorbed onto the substrates. It also implies that pyridine was adsorbed perpendicularly onto the substrate, while pyrazine adsorbed onto the substrate in a slightly tilted vertical configuration. 

Surface-enhanced near-infrared Raman spectroscopy has been utilized to study the behavior of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide on a gold electrode [303]. It has been found that either adenine or nicotinamide moiety changes its adsorption states during potential scanning. 

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