Hydrogen is one of the avenues explored to replace fossil fuels. Producing hydrogen by splitting water is a possible pathway, but it requires the use of catalysts that are often made of scarce, expensive materials whose extraction is not environmentally friendly. It is crucial to discover new, cost-effective, noble-metal-free catalysts that still preserve high performance.
A consortium led by researchers from the Laboratoire de Physique des Solides and the Institut de Chimie Physique (CNRS/UPSaclay) has demonstrated the potential of geo-inspired clay nanotubes as sustainable electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction, the bottleneck in water-splitting processes. Four SOLEIL beamlines contributed to these results.
The oxygen evolution reaction (OER), also known as the water oxidation reaction, 2H₂O ⟶ 4e⁻ + 4H⁺ + O₂, naturally occurs during photosynthesis, which produces the oxygen we breathe. This reaction involves a four-electron transfer, competes with peroxide formation, and requires catalysts to proceed. In recent years, major advances have been achieved with Ir- and Ru-based catalysts, which are considered as benchmark materials for OER. However, despite their high activity and stability, the scarcity and high cost of these elements represent significant limitations for large-scale applications compared with more Earth-abundant elements.
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