INMA Seminar (28th Nov.): Dandan Gao, from the Johannes Gutenberg University (Mainz, Germany)
Conference: “Synergistic behavior in water electrolysis catalysed by Co-W-Cu mixed metal oxides”
Event details
- Speaker: Dr. Dandan Gao, from the Johannes Gutenberg University (Mainz, Germany)
- Date: 28th November 2025.
- Time: 12:00.
- Location: Sala de Conferencias, Edificio I+D+i, campus Río Ebro.
Presentation summary
The conference, titled “Synergistic Behavior in Water Electrolysis Catalyzed by Co-W-Cu Mixed Metal Oxides,” will focus on the development of promising electrocatalysts for water splitting.
Dr. Gao investigates transition-metal oxides, such as Ni, Cu, and Co oxides, which are attractive due to their low cost, abundance, and tunable valence. A major challenge addressed is their stable anchoring to electrodes.
The presentation will cover research on the in-situ growth of mixed Co–W–Cu oxide bifunctional catalysts. These catalysts are characterised by their high conductivity, nanostructured morphology, chemical tunability, and excellent long-term stability for both the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction (HER) and the Oxygen Evolution Reaction (OER). The objective is to enable a full water-splitting cell using the identical material at both the anode and cathode.
Key aspects and mechanistic findings:
- A growth model for high-surface-area nanowires will be detailed, along with electrochemical testing, mechanistic analysis, and stability studies.
- The studies reveal strong metal-oxide synergy. In-situ synchrotron XAS identifies Co3+ as the active site for OER, Cu0 as the active site for HER, and $\text{W}^{6+}$ as the species that stabilises the structure.
- The research also reports self-assembled Co–W oxide nanostructures on $\text{CuO}$, formed via a single-step deposition process. This composite demonstrates self-optimisation for OER, leading to lower overpotentials, higher currents, greater active surface area, and enhanced conductivity and wettability. In-situ restructuring identifies oxidised cobalt species as the true OER site.
- DFT studies (Density Functional Theory) indicate that OOH∗ formation is the rate-determining step and reveal a shift in oxygen-intermediate binding from W to Co during OER.
