Electrode materials for water splitting: Different approaches to bind catalytic active metal oxides to conductive carbon supports

摘要

Excess energy from renewable sources has to be stored, which can be fulfilled by electrocatalytic splitting of water and saving of the produced hydrogen. The conversion of electrical energy to hydrogen as storage molecule is nowadays performed with electrode composites that contain expensive and raw materials like platinum, iridium or ruthenium oxides . Replacement by abundant, inexpensive alternative materials or reduction of loading is needed. Most challenging is the anode site where oxygen evolution reaction (OER) takes place. The requirement for electrode materials is to achieve suitable activities while maintaining the catalyst stability in highly oxidizing conditions.