In the search for precious-metal free electrode materials for electrochemical water splitting, transition metal oxides have been receiving much recent interest as active and stable electrocatalysts for the anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER). We present operando surface X-ray diffraction studies of two structurally well-defined epitaxial cobalt oxide thin films -Co3O4(111) and CoOOH(001) electrodeposited on Au(111). The potential-dependent structural changes during cyclic voltammograms were monitored with high time resolution up to OER current densities as high as 150 mA cm -2 . The CoOOH(001) film is found to be smooth and perfectly stable over a wide potential range. In the case of Co3O4(111), fast and fully reversible structural changes are observed. Specifically, the surface region of Co3O4( 111) starts restructuring at potentials 300 mV negative of the onset of the OER, indicating that the process is related to the thermodynamically predicted Co3O4 / CoOOH(001) transition rather than to the catalytic reaction. The formed skin layer is of defined thickness, which changes linearly with applied potential, and is the OER active phase. Surprisingly, the catalytic activity of the skin layer covered Co3O4 film and that of the smooth CoOOH(001) are almost identical, if the true microscopic surface area is taken into account.This indicates that the number of OER active sites on the two oxides is similar, despite the very different defect density, and is at variance with previous suggestions that di-µ-oxo bridged Co cations are exclusively responsible for the OER activity of Co oxides. For the smooth CoOOH(001) a turnover frequency of 4.2 s -1 per surface atom is determined at an overpotential of 400 mV. Furthermore, our studies demonstrate that the pseudo-capacitive charging current in the pre-OER potential range must be assigned to a bulk process that is accompanied by potential-dependent changes of the unit cell volume in the Co3O4 bulk.

Co oxides and oxyhydroxides have been studied extensively in the past as promising electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in neutral to alkaline media. Earlier studies showed the formation of an ultrathin CoO x (OH) y skin layer on Co 3 O 4 at potentials above 1.15 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE), but the precise influence of this skin layer on the OER reactivity is still under debate. We present here a systematic study of epitaxial spinel-type Co 3 O 4 films with defined (111) orientation, prepared on different substrates by electrodeposition or physical vapor deposition. The OER overpotential of these samples may vary up to 120 mV, corresponding to two orders of magnitude differences in current density, which cannot be accounted for by differences in the electrochemically active surface area. We demonstrate by a careful analysis of operando surface X-ray diffraction measurements that these differences are clearly correlated with the average thickness of the skin layer. The OER reactivity increases with the amount of formed skin layer, indicating that the entire three-dimensional skin layer is an OER-active interphase. Furthermore, a scaling relationship between the reaction centers in the skin layer and the OER activity is established. It suggests that two lattice sites are involved in the OER mechanism.

Processes at material interfaces to liquids or to high-pressure gases often involve structural changes that are heterogeneous on the micrometer scale. We present a novel in situ X-ray scattering technique that uses high-energy photons and a transmission geometry for atomic-scale studies under these conditions. Transmission surface diffraction gives access to a large fraction of reciprocal space in a single acquisition, allowing direct imaging of the in-plane atomic arrangement at the interface. Experiments with focused X-ray beams enable mapping of these structural properties with micrometer spatial resolution. The potential of this new technique is illustrated by in situ studies of electrochemical surface phase transitions and deposition processes.