Subparticle Operando Imaging for Probing Electrocatalytic Intermediates and Cation Effects
) monotonically suppresses activity, consistent with the disruption of structured interfacial water, whereas ionic strength produces a biphasic promotion-inhibition behavior with a critical concentration near 0.5 M. Our imaging approach converts Cu-H* into an experimentally measurable descriptor linking nanoscale structure and interfacial solvation, offering key mechanistic insights for rational electrolyte design in aqueous electrocatalysis, readily extensible to other intermediates (e.g., OH*, CO*) and various electrocatalytic reactions.
Authors
- Xianwen Mao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5156-4493)
- Jin Xie (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4235-7441)
- Haotian Meng
- Hanxiao Fan
- Yifeng Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-4995-1608)
- Xiaofan Yu
- Weiming Zhong
- Zikuang Lyu
- Haoran Yin
- Li Pi
Institutions
- National University of Singapore (SG)
- Norsk Hydro (Germany) (DE)
- Institute of Molecular Functional Materials (CN)
- Fusion Innovations (United Kingdom) (GB)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of the American Chemical Society
- Published
- 2026-05-11
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.5c21794
- Primary Topic
- Electrochemical Analysis and Applications
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Agency for Science, Technology and Research
- National University of Singapore
- Ministry of Education - Singapore