The electrochemical activation of ethylene oxidation was studied over rhodium catalysts of different thickness (40, 100 and 160 nm) sputtered on top of a thin layer of TiO2 deposited on YSZ. The strong relationship between catalytic activity and oxidation state of rhodium was confirmed. Under open-circuit operation the catalyst potential appears as a suitable indicator of the surface oxidation state of rhodium allowing a prediction of the catalytic behavior from solid electrolyte potentiometric measurements. Under closed-circuit conditions the catalyst potential was used as a tool to tune the catalytic activity of rhodium which showed increasing promotional efficiency with decreasing catalyst film thickness.
Raffaella Buonsanti, Anna Loiudice, Min Wang
Paul Joseph Dyson, Mingyang Liu, Yelin Hu, Matthias Beller