Gd‐Ni‐Sb‐SnO 2 electrocatalysts for active and selective ozone production

• Published in: AIChE journal 2021-12, Vol.67 (12)
• Main Authors: Lansing, James L., Zhao, Lingyan, Siboonruang, Tana, Attanayake, Nuwan H., Leo, Angela B., Fatouros, Peter, Park, So Min, Graham, Kenneth R., Keith, John A., Tang, Maureen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0001-1541; 1547-5905
• DOI: 10.1002/aic.17486

Direct electrochemical production of dissolved ozone could potentially provide economic wastewater treatment and sanitation or a valuable chemical oxidant. Although Ni‐Sb‐SnO 2 electrocatalysts have the highest known faradaic efficiencies for electrochemical ozone production, the activity and selectivity are not yet sufficient for commercial implementation. This work finds that co‐doping Ni and Gd increases the ozone selectivity by a factor of three over Ni alone. These findings are the first demonstration of an active dopant other than Ni in SnO 2 . Electrochemical and physical characterization show that trends in ozone activity are caused by chemical catalysis, not morphology effects, and that conduction band alignment is not a catalytic descriptor for the system. Selective radical quenching experiments and quantum chemistry calculations of thermodynamic energies suggest that the kinetic barriers to form solution‐phase intermediates are important for understanding the role of dopants in electrochemical ozone production.