Study on Electrocatalytic Water Oxidation Reaction by Iridium Oxide and Its Bubble Overpotential Effect

Iridium oxide is well known as an electrocatalyst for the water oxidation. Recently, Dr. Bard's group observed the electrocatalytic behavior of individual nanoparticle of Iridium oxide using the electrochemical amplification method by detecting the single nanoparticle collisions at the ultramicroelectrode (UME). However, the electrocatalytic current is decayed as a function of time. In this study, we investigated that the reason of electrocatalytic current decay of water oxidation at Iridium oxide nanoparticles. We identified it is due to the bubble overpotential because the cyclic current decay and recovery were synchronized to the oxygen bubble growth and coming away from an Iridium disk electrode.