How to minimise destabilising effect of gas bubbles on water splitting electrocatalysts?

What Controls Activity Trends of Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution Reaction?─Activation Energy Versus Frequency Factor

“…Effective surface area is the average fraction of the real surface area that is not covered by gas bubbles at a defined overpotential. We proposed in the past a methodology to estimate that quantity; however, the methodology conceals some weak points. ,, To our knowledge, a reliable methodology for determining effective surface area is yet to be developed; until then, every comparison or kinetic analysis of gas evolving electrodes done in the last 100 years is questionable. This is also valid for flat electrodes (not only for porous electrodes) because gas evolution depends on the hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity of a surface that can significantly vary on different metals, oxides, and so forth of flat surfaces.…”

Electrocatalysis Beyond 2020: How to Tune the Preexponential Frequency Factor

“…In the literature were discussed some controversies considering exact values of kinetic parameters obtained on different experimental setups, [46,47] however, as shown previously, accurate values of kinetic parameters are challenging to obtain at gas evolving electrodes even on well-defined systems like rotating disc electrodes (RDE). [48] This is due to gas-bubble adherence on electrode surfaces that results in unknown coverage of active sites, [49] which in turn makes the effective surface area unknown and somewhere between geometric area and the total area at open circuit conditions. [48,50] Also, one should not undermine the influence of impurities on measurements.…”

Water electrolysis: from textbook knowledge to the latest scientific strategies and industrial developments

“…Complicating matters, all of these processes and associated voltage losses are affected by the dynamics of gas bubble nucleation, growth, coalescence, detachment, and transport. 121,122 In particular, the latter aspect calls for game-changing progress in the rational design of gas-evolving electrodes with rapid gas bubble detachment and removal, as emphasised by Zeradjanin 123,124 and Bernt et al 20 This section of the review article is not intended as a detailed review of the field of theory and computation in electrolysis research. Recent reviews and perspectives with a strong emphasis on atomic-scale simulations exist.…”

“…Complicating matters, all of these processes and associated voltage losses are affected by the dynamics of gas bubble nucleation, growth, coalescence, detachment, and transport. 121,122 In particular, the latter aspect calls for game-changing progress in the rational design of gas-evolving electrodes with rapid gas bubble detachment and removal, as emphasised by Zeradjanin 123,124 and Bernt et al 20…”