Assessing the Stability of Co3O4 Under Oxygen Evolution Reaction Conditions at Low and Mild pH

Abstract

Water and CO2 electrolysis will play a crucial role in converting renewable energy into value-added chemicals and chemical fuels. To successfully employ and expand these technologies globally, ideally, one should develop Earth-abundant, cost-effective catalysts with high activity and stability. The requirements for the catalysts depend on the configuration of the electrolyzer, and the electrolyte used there. However, especially in CO2 electrolysis, the stability of the catalyst in a certain electrolyte does not guarantee its successful use on a long-term scale, as the pH in the electrolyzer may change during long-term experiments due to ion transfer through the membrane.1 The anode materials should, therefore, be stable across a broad pH range and/or in carbonate-rich electrolytes. Although the earth-abundant, non-noble transition metals, and their compounds are highly stable at higher pH, they are less stable than Ir or Pt at low and (near-)neutral pH.2 Interestingly, recent studies have shown that Co-based oxides exhibit promising stability even at low pH.3, 4 However, the nature of this stability as well as the mechanisms of non-noble metal oxides catalyzing OER at low or near-neutral pH, are yet to be discovered. In this work, we analyze the stability of cobalt oxide under various electrochemical conditions at low pH with the use of a scanning flow cell (SFC) coupled with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and differential electrochemical mass spectrometry (DEMS). By using these techniques, we can follow the dissolution of Co online and find potential narrow stability windows before and during the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Benefiting from the obtained results, mitigating strategies for minimizing Co dissolution are proposed and discussed.