High Throughput Synthesis and Characterization of Multi-Metallic PGM-Free Aerogels for Catalyzing the Oxygen Evolution Reaction

Abstract

Electrochemical energy conversion and storage technologies are at the heart of the societal pursuit towards circular economy, greenhouse gas emission-free fuel and sustainable energy future. The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) plays a central role in many of these electrochemical technologies, such as electrolyzers and metal-air batteries. The sluggish kinetics of the 4-electron oxidation of water to O2 and the resulting large overpotential limit the efficiency of these devices. The low abundance, prohibitive cost, and moderate stability of state-of-the-art OER catalysts, iridium- and ruthenium-based materials (i.e., IrO2 and RuO2) are obstacles against the cost-effective implementation of electrolysis technologies.1-3 To address these concerns and take the advantage of the intriguing properties and rich chemistry of nanoporous materials,4-7 we have developed a high throughput synthesis route for multi-metallic PGM-free aerogels for catalyzing the OER. The synthesis route is capable of producing 100 samples per batch using the High-Throughput Research Facility at Argonne National Laboratory. The effect of electrocatalyst composition (metal ion ratio) as well as the nature of the metal centers on the OER electrocatalytic activity have been evaluated.AcknowledgementsThis work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Advanced Research Projects Agency Energy (ARPA-E) under the DIFFERENTIATE program. This work was authored in part by Argonne National Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science laboratory operated for DOE by UChicago Argonne, LLC under contract no. DE-AC02-06CH11357.References Katsounaros, Ioannis, Serhiy Cherevko, Aleksandar R. Zeradjanin, and Karl JJ Mayrhofer. "Oxygen electrochemistry as a cornerstone for sustainable energy conversion." Angewandte Chemie International Edition53, no. 1 (2014): 102-121.Lee, Youngmin, Jin Suntivich, Kevin J. May, Erin E. Perry, and Yang Shao-Horn. "Synthesis and activities of rutile IrO2 and RuO2 nanoparticles for oxygen evolution in acid and alkaline solutions." The journal of physical chemistry letters3, no. 3 (2012): 399-404.Cherevko, S. et al. Oxygen and hydrogen evolution reactions on Ru, RuO2, Ir, and IrO2 thin film electrodes in acidic and alkaline electrolytes: A comparative study on activity and stability. Today 262, 170–180 (2016).Nahar, Lamia, Ahmed A. Farghaly, Richard J. Alan Esteves, and Indika U. Arachchige. "Shape controlled synthesis of Au/Ag/Pd nanoalloys and their oxidation-induced self-assembly into electrocatalytically active aerogel monoliths." Chemistry of Materials29, no. 18 (2017): 7704-7715.Farghaly, Ahmed A., Rezaul K. Khan, and Maryanne M. Collinson. "Biofouling-resistant platinum bimetallic alloys." ACS applied materials & interfaces10, no. 25 (2018): 21103-21112.Khan, Rezaul K., Ahmed A. Farghaly, Tiago A. Silva, Dexian Ye, and Maryanne M. Collinson. "Gold-Nanoparticle-Decorated Titanium Nitride Electrodes Prepared by Glancing-Angle Deposition for Sensing Applications." ACS Applied Nano Materials2, no. 3 (2019): 1562-1569.Farghaly, Ahmed A., Mai Lam, Christopher J. Freeman, Badharinadh Uppalapati, and Maryanne M. Collinson. "Potentiometric measurements in biofouling solutions: comparison of nanoporous gold to planar gold." Journal of The Electrochemical Society163, no. 4 (2015): H3083.