Wien effect in interfacial water dissociation through proton-permeable graphene electrodes

J Cai; E Griffin; V H Guarochico-Moreira; D Barry; B Xin; M Yagmurcukardes; S Zhang; A K Geim; F M Peeters; M Lozada-Hidalgo

doi:10.1038/s41467-022-33451-1

Wien effect in interfacial water dissociation through proton-permeable graphene electrodes

Nat Commun. 2022 Oct 1;13(1):5776. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-33451-1.

Authors

J Cai^#^{1

2

3}, E Griffin^#^{1

2}, V H Guarochico-Moreira^{1

2

4}, D Barry², B Xin^{1

2}, M Yagmurcukardes^{5

6}, S Zhang⁷, A K Geim^{1

2

8}, F M Peeters⁵, M Lozada-Hidalgo^{9

10}

Affiliations

¹ National Graphene Institute, The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK.
² Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK.
³ College of Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha, Hunan, 410073, China.
⁴ Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral, ESPOL, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Matemáticas, P.O. Box 09-01-5863, Guayaquil, Ecuador.
⁵ Departement Fysica, Universiteit Antwerpen, Groenenborgerlaan 171, B-2020, Antwerp, Belgium.
⁶ Department of Photonics, Izmir Institute of Technology, 35430, Izmir, Urla, Turkey.
⁷ Key Laboratory for Green Chemical Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, China.
⁸ Centre for Advanced 2D Materials, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 117546, Singapore.
⁹ National Graphene Institute, The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK. marcelo.lozadahidalgo@manchester.ac.uk.
¹⁰ Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK. marcelo.lozadahidalgo@manchester.ac.uk.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Strong electric fields can accelerate molecular dissociation reactions. The phenomenon known as the Wien effect was previously observed using high-voltage electrolysis cells that produced fields of about 10⁷ V m^-1, sufficient to accelerate the dissociation of weakly bound molecules (e.g., organics and weak electrolytes). The observation of the Wien effect for the common case of water dissociation (H₂O [Formula: see text] H⁺ + OH^-) has remained elusive. Here we study the dissociation of interfacial water adjacent to proton-permeable graphene electrodes and observe strong acceleration of the reaction in fields reaching above 10⁸ V m^-1. The use of graphene electrodes allows measuring the proton currents arising exclusively from the dissociation of interfacial water, while the electric field driving the reaction is monitored through the carrier density induced in graphene by the same field. The observed exponential increase in proton currents is in quantitative agreement with Onsager's theory. Our results also demonstrate that graphene electrodes can be valuable for the investigation of various interfacial phenomena involving proton transport.

Abstract

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