(Invited) Metal Oxide Nanoparticles for Stable Alkaline Oxygen Evolution Reaction in an Anion Exchange Membrane Electrolyser Cell

Abstract

One of the key challenges to develop efficient water electrolysis system is to find effective and robust electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Mixed transition metal oxides provide immense possibilities for such purpose.1 , 2 Abundant catalytically active sites could be generated via engineering the defects and oxygen vacancies within the transition metal oxides.3 The catalyst stability could also be improved by incorporating self-healing component into the catalysts .4 In this work, we adopt cobalt oxides as substrate materials to prepare mixed transition metal oxides. The catalysts are synthesized via a combined approach of hydrothermal and annealing processes. The final products are characterized thoroughly by a broad range of characterization techniques, including XRD, TEM, SEM, EDX, and XPS. The OER activities are initially evaluated in a three-electrode system. The results show that the as-prepared catalysts demonstrate high current density at a relatively low overpotential. Moreover, the catalysts exhibit excellent robustness for an 8-hours stability test in a three-electrode testing system. The stability and activity of the catalysts is further assessed in a lab-scale anion exchange membrane (AEM) electrolyser cell setup. Only a small degradation is observed for the best performing catalyst in 12 hours period. The details of the catalyst characterization and electrochemical measurements will be discussed. Acknowledgements This work was funded by European Union’s Horizon 2020 projects FlowPhotoChem (Grant agreement number 862453) and European Innovation Council Pathfinder ANEMEL (Grant agreement number 101071111). References Mohammed-ibrahim, J. & Moussab, H. Tuning the electronic structure of the earth-abundant electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) to achieve efficient alkaline water splitting – A review. J. Energy Chem. 56, 299–342 (2021).Plevová, M., Hnát, J. & Bouzek, K. Electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction in alkaline and neutral media. A comparative review. J. Power Sources 507, (2021).Zhang, R. et al. Tracking the Role of Defect Types in Co3O4 Structural Evolution and Active Motifs during Oxygen Evolution Reaction. J. Am. Chem. Soc. (2023) doi:10.1021/JACS.2C10515.Silva, A. L. et al. Mn-doped Co3O4 for acid, neutral and alkaline electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction. RSC Adv. 12, 26846–26858 (2022).