Room temperature, fast fabrication of square meter-sized oxygen evolution electrode toward industrial alkaline electrolyzer

NiFe-based electrode materials exhibit great promise for next-generation efficient oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalysts in alkaline medium, but they are difficult to be scaled up for large-area fabrication and are lack of robust research under real industrial conditions. Here we present a rapid, room-temperature sulfuration strategy that transforms stainless steel meshes into highly active and stable oxygen evolution electrodes. Such method is easy to be scaled up to produce square meter-sized stainless steel electrodes (1 m Chi 1 m) with NiFeCr-containing trimetal sulfides on the surface. In a standard three-electrode cell, the sulfurated stainless steel electrode exhibits 7.2 times higher OER activity than the corresponding stainless steel, and possesses remarkable catalytic stability for over 1000 h at the current density range of 100-200 mA cm(-2). During the OER, the Cr and S species are demonstrated to be easily detached from the electrode surface, and the in situ formed gamma-(Fe,Ni)OOH is found to be the electrocatalytic active phase. Furthermore, we integrate the sulfurated stainless steel electrode into an industrial alkaline electrolyzer as the anode (400 cm(2)). Our results demonstrate that the electrolyzer based on the sulfurated stainless steel electrode exhibits a better catalytic activity than the electrolyzer based on the Raney nickel electrode, a widely-adopted electrode in commercial water-alkali electrolyzers, and delivers a catalytic current of c.a. 300 mA cm(-2) for over 120 h under the industrial catalytic conditions (30% KOH, 80 degrees C).

Automated summary

NiFe-based electrode materials can be transformed into highly active and stable oxygen evolution electrodes through a room-temperature sulfuration strategy, showing great promise for industrial applications. It can be scaled up for large-area fabrication and exhibits remarkable catalytic performance under real industrial conditions.