Studies over the entropy of components forming the electrode/electrolyte interface can give fundamental insights into the properties of electrified interphases. In particular, the potential where the entropy of formation of the double layer is maximal (potential of maximum entropy, PME) is an important parameter for the characterization of electrochemical systems. Indeed, this parameter determines the majority of electrode processes. In this work, we determine PMEs for Ir(111) electrodes. The latter currently play an important role to understand electrocatalysis for energy provision; and at the same time, iridium is one of the most stable metals against corrosion. For the experiments, we used a combination of the laser induced potential transient to determine the PME, and CO charge-displacement to determine the potentials of zero total charge, (EPZTC). Both PME and EPZTC were assessed for perchlorate solutions in the pH range from 1 to 4. Surprisingly, we found that those are located in the potential region where the adsorption of hydrogen and hydroxyl species takes place, respectively. The PMEs demonstrated a shift by ~30 mV per a pH unit (in the RHE scale). Connections between the PME and electrocatalytic properties of the electrode surface are discussed.

Electrolyte components, which are typically not considered to be directly involved in catalytic processes at solid-liquid electrified interfaces, often demonstrate a significant or even drastic influence on the activity, stability and selectivity of electrocatalysts. While there has been certain progress in the understanding of these electrolyte effects, lack of experimental data for various important systems frequently complicates the rational design of new active materials. Modern proton-exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzers utilize Pt- and Ir-based electrocatalysts, which are among the very few materials that are both active and stable under the extreme conditions of water splitting. We use model Pt(111) and Ir-oxide films grown on Ir(111) electrodes and explore the effect of alkali metal cations and sulfate-anions on the hydrogen evolution and the oxygen evolution reactions in acidic media. We demonstrate that sulfate anions decrease the activity of Ir-oxide towards the oxygen evolution reaction while Rb(+) drastically promotes hydrogen evolution reaction at the Pt(111) electrodes as compared to the reference HClO4 electrolytes. Issues related to the activity benchmarking for these catalysts are discussed.

With the high interest in improving the performance of electrocatalysts for technologically significant reactions, great efforts are directed at the assessment of the activities of various catalytic materials. For this purpose, it is important to compare the catalytic activities measured using different methods and under different conditions. To achieve this, it is of utmost importance to avoid certain methodological and instrumental issues that can severely affect the obtained experimental results. Using well‐defined systems, we demonstrate the importance of experimental conditions in the assessment and benchmarking of the activity of catalytic processes for various reactions. Particularly, we demonstrate that the correction of the uncompensated ohmic resistance using impedance spectroscopy measurements requires particular attention and additional procedures which are normally ignored. Additionally, we demonstrate how the uncompensated resistance changes with the potential if a non‐conducting gas phase is accumulated in the system, hence influencing the activity measurement. It is further shown that a correct choice for surface‐limited reactions for the determination of the real surface area of catalytic electrodes plays a key role in ensuring more meaningful activity assessment.

The selectivity of the chlorine evolution reaction over the oxygen evolution reaction during the electrolysis of aqueous NaCl is, despite being very high, still insufficient to prevent expensive separation of the formed Cl2 and O2 by means of liquefaction. We hypothesize that, by decreasing the local activity of H2O near the anode surface by substantially increasing the ionic strength of the electrolyte, the oxygen evolution reaction would be suppressed, leading concomitantly to a higher selectivity of Cl2 over O2 formation. Hence, the influence of the ionic strength on the competition between electrochemical evolution of O2 and Cl2 at dimensionally stable anodes (DSAs) was investigated. Addition of a high concentration of NaNO3, an inert electrolyte additive, increases the selectivity for chlorine at high current density, as determined by means of online electrochemical mass spectrometry and UV‐vis spectroscopy. We propose conditions in which free water is suppressed, owing to under‐coordination of the solvation shells of ions, as a general concept to modulate the selectivity of competing electrochemical reactions.

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