Preparation of Practical High-Performance Electrodes for Acidic and Alkaline Media Water Electrolysis

Abstract

The synthesis of electrocatalyst and the electrode preparation were merged into a one-step process and proved to be a versatile method to synthesize metal oxide electrocatalysts on the conductive carbon paper (CP). Very simply, the metal precursor deposited on the CP was thermally treated by a torch-gun for just 6 s, resulting in the formation of RuO2, Co3O4, and mixed oxide nanoparticles. The material could be directly used as working electrode for oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Compared with commercial and other state-of-the-art electrocatalysts, the fabricated electrode showed a superior electrocatalytic activity for OER in 1 m HClO4 and 1 m KOH in terms of not only a low overpotential to reach 10 mA cm−2 but also a high current density at 1.6 VRHE with satisfying a long-term stability. The novel strategy without requiring time-consuming and uneconomical steps could be expanded to the preparation of various metal oxides on conductive substrates towards diverse electrocatalytic applications.