Angewandte Chemie - International Edition
Angewandte Chemie - International Edition
5 years ago

An Oxygen-Insensitive Hydrogen Evolution Catalyst Coated by a Molybdenum-Based Layer for Overall Water Splitting

An Oxygen-Insensitive Hydrogen Evolution Catalyst Coated by a Molybdenum-Based Layer for Overall Water Splitting
Samy Ould-Chikh, Nini Wei, Kazunari Domen, Kazuhiro Takanabe, Alain Clo, Tsu-Chien Weng, Angel T. Garcia-Esparza, Dalaver H. Anjum, Dennis Nordlund, Xuyuan Peng, Dimosthenis Sokaras, Tatsuya Shinagawa, Jun Kubota, Muhammad Qureshi
For overall water-splitting systems, it is essential to establish O2-insensitive cathodes that allow cogeneration of H2 and O2. An acid-tolerant electrocatalyst is described, which employs a Mo-coating on a metal surface to achieve selective H2 evolution in the presence of O2. In operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy identified reduced Pt covered with an amorphous molybdenum oxyhydroxide hydrate with a local structural order composed of polyanionic trimeric units of molybdenum(IV). The Mo layer likely hinders O2 gas permeation, impeding contact with active Pt. Photocatalytic overall water splitting proceeded using MoOx/Pt/SrTiO3 with inhibited water formation from H2 and O2, which is the prevailing back reaction on the bare Pt/SrTiO3 photocatalyst. The Mo coating was stable in acidic media for multiple hours of overall water splitting by membraneless electrolysis and photocatalysis. Oxygen-tolerant hydrogen evolution: Molybdenum species inhibit water-forming reactions on platinum and other metal catalysts. Hydrogen was selectively produced by electro- and photocatalytic water splitting in the presence of competing oxygen. In operando characterization revealed an amorphous oxyhydroxide hydrated structure of polyanionic trimeric molybdenum(IV) protecting metallic platinum.

Publisher URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/resolve/doi

DOI: 10.1002/anie.201701861

You might also like
Discover & Discuss Important Research

Keeping up-to-date with research can feel impossible, with papers being published faster than you'll ever be able to read them. That's where Researcher comes in: we're simplifying discovery and making important discussions happen. With over 19,000 sources, including peer-reviewed journals, preprints, blogs, universities, podcasts and Live events across 10 research areas, you'll never miss what's important to you. It's like social media, but better. Oh, and we should mention - it's free.

  • Download from Google Play
  • Download from App Store
  • Download from AppInChina

Researcher displays publicly available abstracts and doesn’t host any full article content. If the content is open access, we will direct clicks from the abstracts to the publisher website and display the PDF copy on our platform. Clicks to view the full text will be directed to the publisher website, where only users with subscriptions or access through their institution are able to view the full article.