Three-dimensional copper cobalt hydroxide electrode for anion exchange membrane water electrolyzer

Abstract

Anion exchange membrane (AEM) water electrolyzers are promising energy devices for producing low-cost and clean hydrogen using platinum group metals (PGMs). However, AEM water electrolyzers still do not show satisfactory performance due to the sluggish kinetics of the electrodes. In this work, copper cobalt hydroxide (CuCo-hydroxide) nanosheet was synthesized on commercial nickel foam (NF) via electrochemical co-precipitation, and used directly as an oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrode for an AEM electrolyzer. The interaction between Cu and Co induces a change in the electronic structure of Co(OH)2 and improves the performance of the OER electrode. In addition, the AEM electrolyzers catalyzed by CuCo(OH)2 showed high energy conversion efficiency of 73.5%. This work demonstrates that non-PGM based electrodes fabricated using a simple electrochemical co-precipitation apply to AEM electrolyzers for low-cost and clean hydrogen production.