ABSTRACT
Graphitic electrode is commonly used in electrochemical reactions owing to its excellent in-plane conductivity, structural robustness and cost efficiency1,2. It serves as prime electrocatalyst support as well as a layered intercalation matrix2,3, with wide applications in energy conversion and storage1,4. Being the two-dimensional building block of graphite, graphene shares similar chemical properties with graphite1,2, and its unique physical and chemical properties offer more varieties and tunability for developing state-of-the-art graphitic devices5-7. Hence it serves as an ideal platform to investigate the microscopic structure and reaction kinetics at the graphitic-electrode interfaces. Unfortunately, graphene is susceptible to various extrinsic factors, such as substrate effect8-10, causing much confusion and controversy7,8,10,11. Hereby we have obtained centimetre-sized substrate-free monolayer graphene suspended on aqueous electrolyte surface with gate tunability. Using sum-frequency spectroscopy, here we show the structural evolution versus the gate voltage at the graphene-water interface. The hydrogen-bond network of water in the Stern layer is barely changed within the water-electrolysis window but undergoes notable change when switching on the electrochemical reactions. The dangling O-H bond protruding at the graphene-water interface disappears at the onset of the hydrogen evolution reaction, signifying a marked structural change on the topmost layer owing to excess intermediate species next to the electrode. The large-size suspended pristine graphene offers a new platform to unravel the microscopic processes at the graphitic-electrode interfaces.
ABSTRACT
Phase-sensitive sum-frequency vibrational spectroscopy (PS-SFVS) has been used to probe the isotopically diluted water/vapor interfaces in the spectral regions of OD (2200-2800 cm(-1)) and OH (3000-3800 cm(-1)) stretches. The experimentally measured Im chiS(2) spectra, where chiS(2) is the surface nonlinear susceptibility, permit direct characterization of resonances of the interfaces. The Im chiS(2) spectrum of the HDO/vapor interface that is intrinsically simpler to analyze can be deduced from the result of isotopic dilution. It exhibits in the bonded-OH region a broad band comprising two parts with opposite signs, in contrast to those deduced earlier from fitting of the |chiS(2)|2 spectra and those calculated by MD simulation, but consistent with that obtained for the H2O/vapor interface.
