Electrified <i>Operando</i> -Freezing of Electrocatalytic CO <sub>2</sub> Reduction Cells for Cryogenic Electron Microscopy
Yanbin Li, Yanbin Li, Yunzhi Liu, Zewen Zhang, Weijiang Zhou, Jinwei Xu, Yusheng Ye, Yucan Peng, Xin Xiao, Wah Chiu, Robert Sinclair, Yuzhang Li, Yuzhang Li, Yi Cui
Abstract
The ability to freeze and stabilize reaction intermediates in their metastable states and obtain their structural and chemical information with high spatial resolution is critical to advance materials technologies such as catalysis and batteries. Here, we develop an electrified operando -freezing methodology to preserve these metastable states under electrochemical reaction conditions for cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) imaging and spectroscopy. Using Cu catalysts for CO 2 reduction as a model system, we observe restructuring of the Cu catalyst in a CO 2 atmosphere while the same catalyst remains intact in air at the nanometer scale. Furthermore, we discover the existence of a single valence Cu (1+) state and C–O bonding at the electrified liquid–solid interface of the operando -frozen samples, which are key reaction intermediates that traditional ex situ measurements fail to detect. This work highlights our novel technique to study the local structure and chemistry of electrified liquid–solid interfaces, with broad impact beyond catalysis.