Corrosion engineering towards efficient oxygen evolution electrodes with stable catalytic activity for over 6000 hours

Abstract

Although a number of nonprecious materials can exhibit catalytic activity approaching (sometimes even outperforming) that of iridium oxide catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction, their catalytic lifetimes rarely exceed more than several hundred hours under operating conditions. Here we develop an energy-efficient, cost-effective, scaled-up corrosion engineering method for transforming inexpensive iron substrates (e.g., iron plate and iron foam) into highly active and ultrastable electrodes for oxygen evolution reaction. This synthetic method is achieved via a desired corrosion reaction of iron substrates with oxygen in aqueous solutions containing divalent cations (e.g., nickel) at ambient temperature. This process results in the growth on iron substrates of thin film nanosheet arrays that consist of iron-containing layered double hydroxides, instead of rust. This inexpensive and simple manufacturing technique affords iron-substrate-derived electrodes possessing excellent catalytic activities and activity retention for over 6000 hours at 1000 mA cm-2 current densities.

Ultrasmall Co@Co(OH)2 Nanoclusters Embedded in N‐Enriched Mesoporous Carbon Networks as Efficient Electrocatalysts for Water Oxidation

“…Stability is one of the important parameters to evaluate the recycling potential and corrosion‐resistive nature of electrocatalysts, especially in view of their commercial application . In this regard, prolonged experiments of OER were conducted to evaluate their ability to sustain a current density of 50 mA cm −2 (Figure c) or 10 mA cm −2 (Figure S8 d in the Supporting Information).…”

In Situ Electrochemical Oxidation of Cu2S into CuO Nanowires as a Durable and Efficient Electrocatalyst for Oxygen Evolution Reaction

“…Thus the development of highly efficient and robust OER catalysts based on earth-abundant elements is a topic of capital importance. [8][9][10][11][12][13] Transition metal oxides and (oxy)hydroxides are the main alternative to noble metals as OER catalysts, reaching performances close to those of IrO2/RuO2 in alkaline media. 14,15 Additionally, several reports have claimed metal phosphides, [16][17][18] nitrides, [19][20][21][22] selenides 23,24 and sulfides [25][26][27][28] to be excellent OER catalysts.…”

Highly Efficient Oxygen Evolution by a Thermocatalytic Process Cascaded Electrocatalysis Over Sulfur‐Treated Fe‐Based Metal–Organic‐Frameworks

“…[ 1–6 ] Note that, the electrochemical process is always accompanied with the heat production, which cannot be ignored, even for the catalysts with 100% Faraday efficiency. [ 7–9 ] On the other hand, nonelectrochemical catalytic processes (thermocatalytic process, etc.) often involve temperature‐sensitive activation energy.…”

“…[ 1,5,6 ] Recently, transition‐metal‐based electrocatalysts were also reported to achieve high OER performance. [ 7–13 ] Especially, Ni‐rich or Co‐rich materials have been used as the state‐of‐the‐art OER electrocatalysts. [ 7–10 ] It is interesting that the second most earth‐abundant metal Fe (much cheaper than Ni or Co) based electrocatalysts typically show relatively low OER activities.…”