Tailoring Electrochemical Performance Through Structure Engineering in Metal Networks

• Applicant: Dr. Pavel Khavlyuk, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Physical Chemistry of Solids and Surfaces, Material Characterisation
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 572081479

The unique combination of disorder and self-similarity in 3D metal aerogels leads to distinctive properties, and recent studies highlight that controlling lattice structure, crystal facets, and defects is key to increasing active reaction sites and enhancing catalytic activity. While real-time monitoring of optical and electrochemical changes could reveal key design parameters and deepen understanding of the electrocatalytic mechanism, in situ spectral-electrochemical analysis is hindered by the black, light-absorbing nature of 3D metal aerogels and the difficulty of identifying representative regions due to highly variable coverage. To overcome these challenges, recently reported 2D metal aerogels could be utilized. Therefore, the primary goal of this proposal is to establish structure-performance dependencies of metal aerogels by combining two recently developed approaches: 2D metal aerogels and in situ spectro-electrochemical monitoring. Here, structurally diverse, film-like 2D metal aerogels with plasmonic properties will be synthesized and characterized using hyperspectral imaging and optical dark-field microscopy during electrocatalytic experiments. Understanding the surface processes and reaction dynamics will help distinguish the performance and reaction mechanisms of different 2D aerogels. Moreover, introducing other metal or non-metal elements into the system can alter the adsorption energy of reaction intermediates, thereby potentially affecting both the reaction pathway and efficiency. Thus, plasmonic 2D aerogels will be incorporated with noble and non-noble metals, respectively, to enhance the selectivity for specific reactions. By measuring the optical and electrochemical properties of morphologically and structurally distinct 2D metal aerogels in situ, the main aim of the proposal is to establish urgently needed structure-performance relationships. These findings will help address fundamental questions related to 3D metal aerogels and propel cost-effective 2D metal aerogels toward practical applications. Considering that 2D metal aerogels do not require energetically expensive equipment during synthesis and utilize less metal precursor, making them highly promising for sensing applications. Therefore, in the application-driven part of the proposal, changes in the optical and electrochemical properties of 2D metal aerogels will be measured in response to exposure to volatile organic compounds such as ethanol and methanol.

• DFG Programme: WBP Position