Scalable Synthesis of Multi-Metal Electrocatalyst Powders and Electrodes and their Application for Oxygen Evolution and Water Splitting

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2023 Mar 13;62(12):e202218493. doi: 10.1002/anie.202218493. Epub 2023 Feb 14.

Abstract

Multi-metal electrocatalysts provide nearly unlimited catalytic possibilities arising from synergistic element interactions. We propose a polymer/metal precursor spraying technique that can easily be adapted to produce a large variety of compositional different multi-metal catalyst materials. To demonstrate this, 11 catalysts were synthesized, characterized, and investigated for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Further investigation of the most active OER catalyst, namely CoNiFeMoCr, revealed a polycrystalline structure, and operando Raman measurements indicate that multiple active sites are participating in the reaction. Moreover, Ni foam-supported CoNiFeMoCr electrodes were developed and applied for water splitting in flow-through electrolysis cells with electrolyte gaps and in zero-gap membrane electrode assembly (MEA) configurations. The proposed alkaline MEA-type electrolyzers reached up to 3 A cm-2 , and 24 h measurements demonstrated no loss of current density of 1 A cm-2 .

Keywords: Membrane-Electrode-Assembly; Multi-Metal Oxide Catalysts; Oxygen Evolution; Spray Coating Synthesis; Water Electrolysis.