ABSTRACT
Electrochemical water splitting is a key technology for the conversion of renewable energy into chemical resources such as hydrogen. However, the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), a half-reaction of water splitting, is so slow that various effective catalysts for the OER have been explored. In this study, we demonstrate a simple and direct process for the synthesis of OER-active NiFe catalysts over electrodes. A NiFe/C catalyst layer was formed on a glassy carbon electrode by simply dropping the catalyst ink containing only metal nitrates and carbon black. The catalyst layer exhibited higher OER performance than the state-of-the-art Ir/C catalyst. The presence of carbon black is essential to enhance the OER activity of NiFe because carbon black helps to disperse the NiFe active sites. Cyclic voltammetry indicated that Ni and Fe are adjacent to each other on the surface of carbon black, resulting in significantly higher activity of NiFe/C compared to those of Ni/C and Fe/C. The effects of the Ni/Fe ratio, amount of carbon black, and type of carbon black on the OER activity of NiFe/C were examined in detail. Furthermore, we discuss the factors that determine the OER performance of NiFe/C.
ABSTRACT
Oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is a key step in energy storage devices. Lanthanum cobaltite (LaCoO3) perovskite is an active catalyst for OER in alkaline solutions, and it is expected to be a low-cost alternative to the state-of-the-art catalysts (IrO2 and RuO2) because transition metals are abundant and inexpensive. For efficient catalysis with LaCoO3, nanosized LaCoO3 with a high surface area is desirable for increasing the number of catalytically active sites. In this study, we developed a novel synthetic route for LaCoO3 nanoparticles by accumulating the precursor molecules over nanocarbons. This precursor accumulation (PA) method for LaCoO3 nanoparticle synthesis is simple and involves the following steps: (1) a commercially available carbon powder is soaked in a solution of the nitrate salts of lanthanum and cobalt and (2) the sample is dried and calcined in air. The LaCoO3 nanoparticles prepared by the PA method have a high specific surface area (12 m2 g-1), comparable to that of conventional LaCoO3 nanoparticles. The morphology of the LaCoO3 nanoparticles is affected by the nanocarbon type, and LaCoO3 nanoparticles with diameters of less than 100 nm were obtained when carbon black (Ketjen black) was used as the support. Further, the sulfur impurities in nanocarbons significantly influence the formation of the perovskite structure. The prepared LaCoO3 nanoparticles show excellent OER activity owing to their high surface area and perovskite structure. The Tafel slope of these LaCoO3 nanoparticles is as low as that of the previously reported active LaCoO3 catalyst. The results strongly suggest that the PA method provides nanosized LaCoO3 without requiring the precise control of chemical reactions, harsh conditions, and/or special apparatus, indicating that it is promising for producing active OER catalysts at a large scale.
