Dynamic restructuring of copper- and silver-based nanoparticle electrodes during CO2 electroreduction studied with combined in situ Small- a

The proposed in situ Small- and Wide-Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS/WAXS) experiments will focus on elucidating the size and shape transformation of colloidal copper- and silver-based nanoparticles during CO2 electroreduction (CO2RR) toward valuable base chemicals, such as ethylene. Since the size and shape of nanoparticle electrocatalysts have been shown to severely impact the catalytic performance, it is of the utmost importance to understand restructuring of nanoparticles under CO2RR conditions. For this purpose, time-resolved in situ USAXS/SAXS/WAXS experiments are ideally suited, because the combination of these techniques allows us to study internal and morphological changes on a wide length scale range simultaneously, and shed light on the factors that could stabilize nanoparticle electrocatalysts.