Electrocatalytic Performance of Carbon Layer and Spherical Carbon/Carbon Cloth Composites Towards Hydrogen Evolution from the Direct Electrolysis of Bunsen Reaction Product

A composite material comprising a carbon layer and spherical carbon/carbon cloth(C-SC/CC)was fabricated using a hydrothermal-pyrolysis method,employing carbon cloth as the substrate and glucose as the carbon source.The C-SC/CC electrode was evaluated as an electrocatalytic electrode for hydrogen production by electrolysis of Bunsen reaction products.The electrode prepared with 4 g of glucose and annealed at 800°C showed excellent electrocatalytic activity.It requires only a potential of 185 mV(vs.SCE)to achieve a current density of 10 mA/cm2.Furthermore,the electrode demonstrated good stability with a 6%loss in current density after 1000 cycles of scanning from 0.2 V to 1.2 V.These results indicate the potential of the SC/CC electrode as an efficient and durable electrocatalyst for the electrolysis of H2SO4 and HI.

Boosting acidic water oxidation performance by constructing arrays-like nanoporous Ir_(x)Ru_(1−x)O_(2) with abundant atomic steps

The fabrication of electrocatalysts with high activity and acid stability for acidic oxygen evolution reaction(OER)is an urgent need,yet extremely challenging.Here,we report the design and successful fabrication of a high performance self-supported cogwheel arrays-like nanoporous Ir_(x)Ru_(1−x)O_(2) catalyst with abundant atomic steps for acidic OER using a facile alloy-spinningelectrochemical activation method that allows large-scale fabrication.The obtained Ir_(x)Ru_(1−x)O_(2) catalysts merely need overpotentials of 211 and 295 mV to deliver catalytic current densities of 10 and 300 mA·cm^(−2) in 0.5 M H_(2)SO_(4),respectively,and can sustain constant OER electrolysis for at least 140 h at a high current density of 300 mA·cm^(−2).Further density functional theory(DFT)calculations uncover that such high intrinsic activities mainly originate from the largely exposed high-index atomic step planes,which markedly lower the limiting potential of the rate-determining step(RDS)of OER.These findings provide an insight into the exploration of high performance electrocatalysts,and open up an avenue for further developing the state-of-theart Ir and/or Ru-based catalysts for large-scale practical applications.