Metal-Functionalized Hydrogels as Efficient Oxygen Evolution Electrocatalysts

0558867 - ÚPT 2023 RIV US eng J - Journal Article
Tang, C. - Thomas, B. - Ramirez-Hernandez, M. - Materna Mikmeková, Eliška - Asefa, T.
Metal-Functionalized Hydrogels as Efficient Oxygen Evolution Electrocatalysts.
ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. Roč. 14, č. 18 (2022), s. 20919-20929. ISSN 1944-8244. E-ISSN 1944-8252
Institutional support: RVO:68081731
Keywords : hydrogel * conducting polymer * oxygen evolution reaction * phytic acid * polyaniline
OECD category: Electrical and electronic engineering
Impact factor: 9.5, year: 2022
Method of publishing: Limited access
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsami.2c01667

Conductive polymer hydrogels have large surface areas and electrical conductivities. Their properties can be further tailored by functionalizing them with metals and nonmetals. However, the potential applications of metal-functionalized hydrogels for electrocatalysis have rarely been investigated. In this work, we report the synthesis of transition-metalfunctionalized polyaniline-phytic acid (PANI-PA) hydrogels that show efficient electrocatalytic activities for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Among the many transition metals studied, Fe is accommodated by the hydrogel the most due to the favorable affinity of the PA groups in the hydrogel for Fe. Meanwhile, those containing both Fe and Co are found to be the most effective electrocatalysts for OER. The most optimized such hydrogel, NF@HgelFe0.3Co0.1, which is made using a solution that has a 3:1 ratio of Fe and Co, needs an overpotential of only 280 mV to catalyze OER in 1 M KOH solution with a current density of 10 mV cm-2. Furthermore, these metal-functionalized PANI-PA hydrogels can easily be loaded on the nickel foam or carbon cloth via a simple soak-and-dry method to generate free-standing electrodes. Overall, this work demonstrates a facile synthesis and fabrication of sustainable and efficient OER electrocatalysts and electrodes that are composed of easily processable hydrogels functionalized with earth-abundant transition metals.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0333399