Screening Oxide Support Materials for OER Catalysts in Acid

Abstract

© 2018 Electrochemical Society Inc.. All rights reserved. The lack of stable and economic supporting materials at high voltages hampers the development of electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER), which is the major source of energy loss in water splitting to produce hydrogen. In this work, we developed systematic methods to evaluate candidate compounds that can potentially replace traditional carbon support for OER catalysts. Stability, economic and conductivity criteria of the oxide support materials were studied and discussed. A nano-sized antimony-doped tin oxide was fabricated to support RuO2, which was shown to provide the highest stability and activity of OER in 0.5 M H2SO4 up to 2.5 VRHE and up to 55°C.