Surface Sensitive Studies of Interfacial Water Structure in Saturated Aqueous Solution of NaClO4
Date
2024-01-05
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
0000-0001-6775-354X
Type
Thesis
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
Over the past years, it has been found that understanding the metal/water interaction plays a vital
role in multidisciplinary fields ranging from heterogeneous catalysis and electrocatalysis to water
in salt systems for advancing commercial battery technologies. It is also believed that the main
properties of the WiS (water in salt) electrolytes are mainly linked to the chemical and physical
properties of the interfaces between the water molecules in the WiS system and the metal electrode.
This research focuses on conducting surface-sensitive studies on interfacial water in WiS systems,
and the main approach of these experiments is to investigate water interaction and orientation as a
function of the surface charge and NaClO4 concentration at the water/Gold electrode interface.
In pursuit of this objective, ATR (attenuated total reflectance) was utilized to gain knowledge
about the structure of water molecules in the solution as the concentration of NaClO4 increasing
Additionally, ATR technique can provide an insight into the hydrogen bonding in the water in salt
system.
Utilizing ATR-SEIRAS (Attenuated Total Reflectance Surface-Enhanced Infrared Absorption
Spectroscopy) in the subsequent phase of the project could potentially demonstrate valuable data
about potential-dependent water adsorption as well as changes in hydrogen network strength in
the double layer region as a function of the applied potential. The outcomes from the ATRSEIRAS
technique provided a representation of the possible orientation of water molecules in
different potentials. The hydrogen-oriented upward arrangement for water molecules is proposed
in positive potentials, while in negative potentials, the hydrogen atoms of water are closer to the
surface. Subsequently, the hydrogen network is stronger on the positively charged surface.
Description
Keywords
ATR-SEIRAS, WiS electrolyte
Citation
Degree
Master of Science (M.Sc.)
Department
Chemistry
Program
Chemistry