What is it about?
Keeping in mind the current state of energy crisis the world is suffering, we need to develop sustainable systems of energy, which are efficient, environmentally friendly, and scalable. Here splitting of water via electrolysis can be used as a smart approach to produce hydrogen and oxygen gas where hydrogen gas can be used as a sustainable fuel. However, the water splitting reaction is sluggish due to oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hence to speed up reactions, effective catalysts should be employed. The paper reports a novel OER hybrid tetrametallic electrocatalyst (Co–Ni–Fe–Zn) that is cost affordable as compared to the traditional precious noble-metal-based catalysts for producing environmental friendly fuel.
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Why is it important?
Lower values of onset potential and overpotential and a higher value of current density define the activity of the catalyst toward OER. And our one-pot in-situ facile preparation of catalyst generates a signal of OER with a current density of 10 mA/cm2 at an overpotential of just 90mV under alkaline conditions which is an accomplishment for a catalyst used for water splitting.
Perspectives
The article brings a perspective into the fore where people can develop electrocatalysts by simply using non- noble metals via a one-pot synthesis method which contributes towards cheaper options. Additionally selecting the right combination of metals for efficient electrocatalyst that works via synergism is a time consuming process yet leads to promising candidates for catalyzing OER reactions. This work I think will be a seedling to think on other metals and their combinations that can work in a synergistic manner and lower the overpotential to accomplish water splitting via electrolysis.
Dr Afzal Shah
Quaid-i-Azam University, Iislamabad
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Development of transition metal based electrolyzer for efficient oxygen evolution reaction, Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, March 2020, American Institute of Physics,
DOI: 10.1063/1.5123234.
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