Researchers at Korea College develop high-performance textile-based electrodes for watersplitting

Researchers at Korea College have developed high-performance, textile-based electrodes for watersplitting (WSE); the non-noblemetal-based electrodes can generate a considerable amount of hydrogen with low overpotentials and excessive operational stability. An open-access paper on their work is revealed within the RSC journal Power & Environmental Science.

An electrochemical water-splitting response affords an efficient pathway to generate hydrogen fuels and retailer electrical energy from varied intermittent however renewable power sources. Lately, substantial efforts have been dedicated to fabricating high-performance and low-cost water-splitting electrodes that may generate a considerable amount of hydrogen fuels per unit space with low overpotentials and long-term stability underneath alkaline circumstances. To realize this aim, non-noble metal-based catalysts have been launched onto porous substrates with giant floor space utilizing resolution processes.

Nonetheless, non-uniform coating of electrocatalysts onto porous substrates, unfavorable interfacial interactions between electrocatalysts and substrates, and/or comparatively low electrical conductivity of electrocatalysts notably elevated the overpotentials of electrodes, and concurrently induced unstable operation at excessive present density.

To handle these issues, a carbonization/interfacial assembly-driven electroplating method was utilized to extremely porous silk textiles. Benefiting from the wonderful management of the electrocatalytic deposition on the carbonized silk fibrils, insulating silks had been nearly completely transformed to high-performance water-splitting electrodes with bulk metal-like conductivity, giant electrocatalytic space, extraordinarily low overpotentials, and unprecedently excessive operation stability.

Our method can present a promising software for creating high-performance electrodes for water electrolyzers and different electrochemical power units.

—Mo et al.

The workforce first transformed silk textiles to carboxylic acid-functionalized conductive textiles utilizing carbonization and a subsequent acid therapy. Then, they assembled amine linkers onto the conductive textiles to attain favorable interfacial interactions with electrocatalysts.

For a hydrogen evolution response (HER) electrode, they electroplated nickel (Ni) onto the interface-modified textile, whereas to organize an oxygen evolution response (OER) electrode, they moreover electroplated NiFeCo onto the Ni-electroplated textile.

Schematic illustration of the carbonization/interfacial assembly-driven electroplating method to manufacture water-splitting electrodes. Mo et al.

These HER and OER electrodes exhibited extraordinarily low overpotentials in alkaline media (12 mV at 10 mA cm⁻² for the HER and 186 mV at 50 mA cm⁻² for the OER), outperforming the traditional non-noble metal-based electrodes.

The general-water-splitting response of full-cell electrodes was stably maintained at a remarkably excessive present density of 2000 mA cm⁻² and a low cell voltage of 1.70 V.

Sources

• Jeongmin Mo, Younji Ko, Younger Soo Yun, June Huh and Jinhan Cho (2022) “A carbonization/interfacial assembly-driven electroplating method for water-splitting textile electrodes with remarkably low overpotentials and excessive operational stability” Power Environ. Sci. doi: 10.1039/d2ee01510b