IMPROVED EFFICIENCY OF WATER AND ZINC OXIDE ELECTROLYSIS SYSTEMS THROUGH THE APPLICATION OF A HETEROGENEOUS WATER OXIDATION CATALYST PREPARED FROM DICOBALT OCTACARBONYL AND 1,2-BIS(DIPHENYLPHOSPHINO)ETHANE

摘要

Electrolysis of water or metal oxides, such as zinc oxide, is recognized as potentially useful for the storage of electrical energy as chemical fuels. Devices such as fuel cells can recombine the hydrogen or zinc fuel with oxygen to release the stored energy with significant power density. Unfortunately, although both water and zinc oxide are cheap, widely abundant, non-toxic, and yield energy- dense fuels, 3 both electrolyses suffer from low energy efficiency. In both cases, the anodic oxygen evolution reaction is a significant source of inefficiency, and therefore catalysis of the oxygen evolution reaction has been the subject of many researchers for several decades.