Multi-band metasurface-driven surface-enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy for improved characterization of in-situ electrochemical reactions

TL;DR

This paper presents a multi-band metasurface-driven SEIRAS platform that significantly enhances infrared absorption signals, enabling simultaneous detection of multiple adsorbed species during electrochemical reactions, particularly CO2 reduction.

Contribution

The authors develop a reproducible, spectrally-tunable platinum metasurface for broadband SEIRAS, allowing simultaneous monitoring of multiple vibrational modes during electrochemical processes.

Findings

Achieved 41-fold signal enhancement over conventional methods.

Successfully detected multiple CO adsorption configurations simultaneously.

Found that CO bridge configuration is not significant in CO2 reduction in alkaline media.

Abstract

Surface-enhanced spectroscopy techniques are the method-of-choice to characterize adsorbed intermediates occurring during electrochemical reactions, which are crucial in realizing a green sustainable future. Characterizing species with low coverages or short lifetimes have so far been limited by low signal enhancement. Recently, metasurface-driven surface-enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy (SEIRAS) has been pioneered as a promising narrowband technology to study single vibrational modes of electrochemical interfaces during CO oxidation. However, many reactions involve several species or configurations of adsorption that need to be monitored simultaneously requiring reproducible and broadband sensing platforms to provide a clear understanding of the underlying electrochemical processes. Here, we experimentally realize multi-band metasurface-driven SEIRAS for the in-situ study of electrochemical CO2 reduction on a Pt surface. We develop an easily reproducible and spectrally-tunable platinum nano-slot metasurface. Two CO adsorption configurations at 2030 cm-1 and 1840 cm-1 are locally enhanced as a proof of concept that can be extended to more vibrational bands. Our platform provides a 41-fold enhancement in the detection of characteristic absorption signals compared to conventional broadband electrochemically roughened platinum films. A straightforward methodology is outlined starting by baselining our system in CO saturated environment and clearly detecting both configurations of adsorption, in particular the hitherto hardly detectable CO bridge configuration. Then, thanks to the signal enhancement provided by our platform, we find that the CO bridge configuration on platinum does not play a significant role during CO2 reduction in an alkaline environment. We anticipate that our technology will guide researchers in developing similar sensing platforms.