Anionic formulation of electrolyte additive towards stable electrocatalytic oxygen evolution in seawater splitting

摘要

Hydrogen generation through seawater electrolysis provides a promising,attractive pathway towards the utilization of sustainable energy.However,the catalytic activity and stability of oxygen evolution anode are severely limited by the chloride-induced corrosion and competitive oxidation reactions.In this work,we demonstrate an anion-assisted performance improvement strategy by quick and universal screening of electrolyte additive via correlating Cl-repellency with the anionic properties.Particularly,the addition of phosphate ions is found to enable highly stable alkaline seawater splitting at industry-level current density(0.5 A cm^(-2))over 500 h using transition metal hydroxides as anodic electrocatalysts.In situ experiments and theoretical simulations further reveal that the dynamic anti-corrosion behaviors of surface-adsorbed phosphate ions are attributed to three factors including repelling Cl-ions without significantly blocking OH-diffusion,preventing transition metal dissolution and acting as a local pH buffer to compensate the fast OH-consumption under high current electrolysis.