Abstract
AbstractThe oxygen evolution reaction (OER) through water oxidation is a key process for multiple energy storage technologies required for a sustainable energy economy such as the formation of the fuel hydrogen from water and electricity, or metal‐air batteries. Herein, we investigate the suitability of Cu2FeSnS4 for the OER and demonstrate its superiority over iron sulfide, iron (oxy)hydroxides and benchmark noble‐metal catalysts in alkaline media. Electrodeposited Cu2FeSnS4 yields the current densities of 10 and 1000 mA/cm2 at overpotentials of merely 228 and 330 mV, respectively. State‐of‐the‐art analytical methods are applied before and after electrocatalysis to uncover the fate of the Cu2FeSnS4 precatalyst under OER conditions and to deduce structure‐activity relationships. Cu2FeSnS4 is the first compound reported for OER among the broad class of stannite structure type materials containing multiple members with highly active earth‐abundant transition‐metals for OER.
Highlights
The highest loss of efficiency in this process results from the overpotential (η) of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), which involves four sequential proton-coupled electron transfer steps.[5]To overcome this disadvantage, a vast amount of suitableOER catalyst have been investigated.[6,7] Among these highly promising materials are transition-metal (TM) oxides, phosphates, chalcogenides, pnictides and carbides.[8,9] The strongly oxidizing conditions required to achieve the oxidation of water is in most cases accompanied by a more or less severe transformation of the materials tohydroxides species.[10]many of the oxides and most of the non-oxidic materials are merely precatalysts for the OER.[11]
Even though the anion is often exchanged or depleted from the electrocatalytic active structure, it plays a significant role in tuning the properties of the active catalyst either by creating high surface areas and defects through leaching or by providing a conductive core.[10,11,12,13,14,15]
The superior electrocatalytic properties of Cu2FeSnS4 on fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) and nickel foam (NF) compared to single component iron sulfide, ironhydroxide and the benchmark noble-metal-based catalyst
Summary
The highest loss of efficiency in this process results from the overpotential (η) of the OER, which involves four sequential proton-coupled electron transfer steps.[5]. Many of the oxides and most of the non-oxidic materials are merely precatalysts for the OER.[11] Even though the anion is often exchanged or depleted from the electrocatalytic active structure, it plays a significant role in tuning the properties of the active catalyst either by creating high surface areas and defects through leaching or by providing a conductive core.[10,11,12,13,14,15]. B C variety of (semi)metals can be implemented for example A = Li, Na, Ag, Cu; B = Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Zn, Cd; and C = Si, Ge, Sn.[45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52] Many members of this class of materials crystallize in the stannite structure type named after the mineral stannite with the formula Cu2FeSnS4. Bearing in mind that stannites containing the most active earth-abundant TM are synthetically accessible;[50] this report may triggers further interest to explore the OER properties of this class of quaternary materials
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