From Bad Electrochemical Practices to an Environmental and Waste Reducing Approach for the Generation of Active Hydrogen Evolving Electrodes. Issue 48 (15th October 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ring, Lisa; Pollet, Bruno G.; Chatenet, Marian; Abbou, Sofyane; Küpper, Karsten; Schmidt, Mercedes; Huck, Marten; Gries, Aurelia; Steinhart, Martin; Schäfer, Helmut
• Is Part Of: Angewandte Chemie international edition. Volume 58:Issue 48(2019)
• Page Start: 17383
• Page End: 17392
• Publication Date: 2019-10-15
• Subjects: electrocatalysis -- heterogeneous catalysis -- hydrogen evolution -- water splitting; Chemistry -- Periodicals; 540
• DOI: 10.1002/anie.201908649
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1433-7851

Abstract

Abstract: The electrodeposition of noble metals using corresponding dissolved metal salts represents an interesting process for the improvement of the electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) properties of less active substrate materials. The fact that only a small fraction of the dissolved noble metals reaches the substrate represents a serious obstacle to this common procedure. We therefore chose a different path. It was found that the HER activity of Ni42 alloy drastically increased ( η =140 mV at j =10 mA cm −2 ; pH 1) when a platinum counter electrode was used during polarization experiments in acid. This improvement was caused by a platinum transfer from the platinum anode to the steel cathode, a process which occurred simultaneously to the hydrogen evolution. The negligible accumulation of Pt (26 μg) in the electrolyte turns this straight‐forward transfer procedure into a highly cost‐effective, environmentally friendly, and waste reducing approach for the generation of cheap, stable and effective HER electrodes. Abstract : The use of a platinum counter electrode for the evaluation of non‐Platinum group metal based electrodes can be seen as bad electrochemical practice. Herein, it was done intentionally and this strategy turned out to be a zero‐waste‐approach for the generation of highly active and stable HER electrocatalysts.