Impact of nanoparticle size and lattice oxygen on water oxidation on NiFeOxHy
Mass-selected NiFe nanoparticles and isotope-labelling experiments show that water oxidation on NiFeOxHy in 1 M KOH does not proceed via lattice exchange but is limited to the near-surface region — yielding a record turnover frequency of 6.2 ± 1.6 s-1 at 0.3 V overpotential.
Enabling real-time detection of electrochemical desorption phenomena with sub-monolayer sensitivity
A silicon microchip EC-MS gas inlet couples directly to a mass spectrometer, capturing electrode reaction products in real time with 100% collection efficiency and sub-second response — delivering sub-turnover resolution beyond established EC-MS techniques.
Real-time detection of sub-monolayer desorption phenomena during electrochemical reactions: Instrument development and applications
This PhD thesis by D. B. Trimarco introduces a novel EC-MS instrument built around a microfabricated membrane chip that couples wet electrochemistry directly to a mass spectrometer’s vacuum with no signal loss. The design achieves 100% collection efficiency and sub-monolayer sensitivity, outperforming conventional DEMS while keeping response times fast. Applied to HER, OER, CO oxidation and CO stripping on platinum, the instrument also uncovered a new CO reduction pathway on copper — where pre-exposing the catalyst to dioxygen temporarily boosts methane production, an effect explained by DFT as a geometric tilting effect at kink sites.
A device for extracting volatile species from a liquid
A novel membrane-based device extracts volatile species from liquids for direct MS analysis, combining the fast response of DEMS with the high sensitivity of MIMS — without needing a differential pumping stage.
Fast and sensitive method for detecting volatile species in liquids
A novel sniffer-chip apparatus extracts volatile species from liquids via a hydrophobic membrane into a carrier gas stream, delivering them directly to a mass spectrometer. The method combines the fast response of DEMS with the sensitivity of MIMS — capable of detecting sub-monolayer surface reactions at faradaic currents down to ~30 nA.