Electrochemical Measurements as Screening Method for Water Oxidation Catalyst

Abstract

In actual water splitting devices, the WOC will be deposited on an anode surface. Therefore, whatever the results obtained with WOC particles suspended in stirrer tank reactors, it becomes necessary to study WOC performances by means of electrochemical experimental setups. The WOCs deposition on an anode will depend on their physico-chemical nature, therefore several deposition methods, including wet and dry approaches, are found in literature. This Chapter reviews the available electrochemical techniques that can be adopted to study WOCs that are deposited on an electrode. In addition, the parameters used in literature to compare the different WOC materials will be explained. At the end of the Chapter, an example of the performance of different MnOx films will be reported. The water oxidation activity of three MnOx crystalline phases prepared by two deposition techniques will be compared. The aim of the comparison is to determine whether two electrodes having the same crystalline phase behave differently or not when they are deposited by two different techniques.