Abstract
Electrochemical water splitting has drawn significant attention for hydrogen generation as a carbon-free energy carrier for the construction of a net-zero society. To scale up water electrolyzers, enormous efforts have been made to the development of high-throughput synthesis of the electrocatalysts based on abundance and non-toxic elements for both oxygen and hydrogen evolution reactions. In this work, Fe-based nanostructures with a high Fe electrooxidation rate (up to 1 g cm−2 h−1) were prepared through a controlled and feasible electrosynthesis using pulse alternating current. The effect of electrolyte solution and post-annealing on composition/structural characteristics and electrochemical activity of the Fe-based nanostructures was depicted. The bi-phase sheet-like γ-Fe2O3/δ-FeOOH and cube-like γ-Fe2O3/α-FeOOH structures are formed in aqueous NaOH and NaCl solutions, respectively. The electrocatalytic activity of the synthesized structures was tailored by annealing up to 500 °C in air. The α-Fe2O3 catalyst synthesized in NaOH and NaCl demonstrated the overpotentials of 441 and 390 mV at 10 mA cm−2 in hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions, respectively. This work provides new and deep insights into the high-throughput electrosynthesis of low-cost catalysts for hydrogen and oxygen production from water splitting. Therefore, this work focuses on the rational design and research of Fe-based catalysts for electrochemical water splitting.
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Acknowledgements
The XPS studies are performed using the equipment of the Shared Research Center “National Center of Catalyst Research”. The TEM study was carried out on the equipment of the Center Collective Use “Materials Science and Metallurgy”.
Funding
The electrochemical synthesis and structure optimization of the materials were funded by Russian Science Foundation (№ 23-79-10219). Electrochemical study has been supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (№ 075-03-2021-016/4) at the Laboratory “Novel composite and functional materials with specific properties” within the framework of National Project “Science and Universities”.
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Conceptualization was analyzed TM and AU; investigation was conducted by TM, MG, SK, and VK; methodology was prepared by TM and AU; writing—original draft were drafted byTM; writing—review & editing were done by AU and NS; funding acquisition was provided by AU.
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Molodtsova, T., Ulyankina, A., Gorshenkov, M. et al. High-throughput electrochemical strategy for synthesis of iron-based nanostructures for electrocatalytic water splitting. J Mater Sci 59, 1265–1279 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-023-09290-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-023-09290-w