Phenomenology of Intermediate Molecular Dynamics at Metal-Oxide Interfaces

• Published in: Annual review of physical chemistry Vol. 75; no. 1; pp. 457 - 481
• Main Author: Cuk, Tanja
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Annual Reviews 28.06.2024
• Subjects: metal-oxide surface; molecular dynamics; oxygen evolution reaction; solid-liquid interface; time-resolved optical spectroscopy; oxygen evolution reaction; solid-liquid interface; molecular dynamics; time-resolved optical spectroscopy; metal-oxide surface
• ISSN: 0066-426X; 1545-1593
• DOI: 10.1146/annurev-physchem-062123-022921

Reaction intermediates buried within a solid-liquid interface are difficult targets for physiochemical measurements. They are inherently molecular and locally dynamic, while their surroundings are extended by a periodic lattice on one side and the solvent dielectric on the other. Challenges compound on a metal-oxide surface of varied sites and especially so at its aqueous interface of many prominent reactions. Recently, phenomenological theory coupled with optical spectroscopy has become a more prominent tool for isolating the intermediates and their molecular dynamics. The following article reviews three examples of the SrTiO 3 -aqueous interface subject to the oxygen evolution from water: reaction-dependent component analyses of time-resolved intermediates, a Fano resonance of a mode at the metal-oxide–water interface, and reaction isotherms of metastable intermediates. The phenomenology uses parameters to encase what is unknown at a microscopic level to then circumscribe the clear and macroscopically tuned trends seen in the spectroscopic data.