Journal
NATURE CHEMISTRY
Volume 10, Issue 1, Pages 24-30Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/NCHEM.2874
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Funding
- European Union (project ERC StG, grant CHEMCOMP) [279313]
- Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (MINECO) [CTQ2015-71287-R, CTQ2014-52774-P]
- Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (Severo Ochoa Excellence Accreditation) [SEV-2013-0319]
- Generalitat de Catalunya [2014-SGR-797, 2014SGR-199]
- CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya
- ICREA Foundation
- Generalitat Catalana (AGAUR)
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Water splitting is a promising approach to the efficient and cost-effective production of renewable fuels, but water oxidation remains a bottleneck in its technological development because it largely relies on noble-metal catalysts. Although inexpensive transition-metal oxides are competitive water oxidation catalysts in alkaline media, they cannot compete with noble metals in acidic media, in which hydrogen production is easier and faster. Here, we report a water oxidation catalyst based on earth-abundant metals that performs well in acidic conditions. Specifically, we report the enhanced catalytic activity of insoluble salts of polyoxometalates with caesium or barium counter-cations for oxygen evolution. In particular, the barium salt of a cobalt-phosphotungstate polyanion outperforms the state-of-the-art IrO2 catalyst even at pH <1, with an overpotential of 189 mV at 1 mA cm(-2). In addition, we find that a carbon-paste conducting support with a hydrocarbon binder can improve the stability of metal-oxide catalysts in acidic media by providing a hydrophobic environment.
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