Oxygen electrocatalysts for water electrolyzers and reversible fuel cells: status and perspectiveThis article was submitted as part of a special collection on Catalysis for Clean Energy
Hydrogen production by electrochemical water electrolysis has received great attention as an alternative technology for energy conversion and storage. The oxygen electrode has a substantial effect on the performance and durability of water electrolyzers and reversible (or regenerative) fuel cells be...
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| Main Authors | , , , |
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| Format | Journal Article |
| Language | English |
| Published |
18.10.2012
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| Online Access | Get full text |
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| Summary: | Hydrogen production by electrochemical water electrolysis has received great attention as an alternative technology for energy conversion and storage. The oxygen electrode has a substantial effect on the performance and durability of water electrolyzers and reversible (or regenerative) fuel cells because of its intrinsically slow kinetics for oxygen evolution/reduction and poor durability under harsh operating environments. To improve oxygen kinetics and durability of the electrode, extensive studies for highly active and stable oxygen electrocatalysts have been performed. However, due to the thermodynamic instability of transition metals in acidic media, noble metal compounds have been primarily utilized as electrocatalysts in water electrolyzers and reversible fuel cells. For water electrolyzer applications, single noble metal oxides such as ruthenium oxide and iridium oxide have been studied, and binary or ternary metal oxides have been developed to obtain synergistic effects of each component. On the other hand, a variety of bifunctional electrocatalysts with a combination of monofunctional electrocatalysts such as platinum for oxygen reduction and iridium oxide for oxygen evolution for reversible fuel cell applications have been mainly proposed. Practically, supported iridium oxide-on-platinum, its reverse type, and non-precious metal-supported platinum and iridium bifunctional electrocatalysts have been developed. Recent theoretical calculations and experimental studies in terms of water electrolysis and fuel cell technology suggest the effective ways to cope with current major challenges of cost and durability of oxygen electrocatalysts for technical applications.
This perspective reviews various oxygen electrocatalysts for water electrolyzers and reversible fuel cells and discusses worthy subjects of future study. |
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| Bibliography: | This article was submitted as part of a special collection on Catalysis for Clean Energy. etc. Dr Yuyan Shao is a Senior Scientist at the Chemical & Materials Sciences Division of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. His research is focused on the fundamental study and high-performance functional materials for electrochemical energy conversion and storage, including fuel cells, metal-air batteries, lithium/sodium batteries, redox flow batteries, supercapacitors Dr Yong Wang is the Voiland Distinguished Professor in Chemical Engineering at Washington State University, and a Laboratory Fellow/Associated Director of Institute for Integrated Catalysis at PNNL. He is best known for his leadership in the development of novel catalytic materials and reaction engineering for the conversion of fossil and biomass feedstocks. He has received three R&D 100 awards, two PNNL Inventor of the Year awards, Asian American Engineer of the Year Award, and Presidential Green Chemistry Award. Dr Wang is an AAAS Fellow and ACS Fellow. He has authored more than 150 peer reviewed publications and holds 81 issued US patents. Dr Sehkyu Park received his PhD in Chemical Engineering at University of South Carolina in 2008. He is a postdoctoral research associate in Chemical & Material Sciences Division at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. His research interest includes energy materials and nanostructured electrodes for fuel cells and rechargeable batteries. He has authored more than 20 peer reviewed publications. Dr Jun Liu is a Laboratory Fellow at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and leader for the Transformational Materials Science Initiative. Dr Liu's main research interest includes synthesis of functional nanomaterials for energy storage, catalysis, environmental separation and health care. He has received an R&D 100 Award, two BES Awards for Significant Impact on DOE Missions, and was named 2007 Distinguished Inventor of Battelle. Dr Liu is an AAAS Fellow and MRS Fellow. He has over 270 publications. He has published over 60 journal papers. |
| ISSN: | 1754-5692 1754-5706 |
| DOI: | 10.1039/c2ee22554a |