Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 8, 2026

Synthesis of a Water-soluble Metal–Organic Complex Array
Published on: October 8, 2016
Systematic design of superaerophobic nanotube-array electrode comprised of transition-metal sulfides for overall
Haoyi Li1, Shuangming Chen2, Ying Zhang3
1Key Lab of Organic Optoelectronics and Molecular Engineering, Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
Abstract:
Great attention has been focused on the design of electrocatalysts to enable electrochemical water splitting-a technology that allows energy derived from renewable resources to be stored in readily accessible and non-polluting chemical fuels. Herein we report a bifunctional nanotube-array electrode for water splitting in alkaline electrolyte. The electrode requires the overpotentials of 58 mV and 184 mV for hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions respectively, meanwhile maintaining remarkable long-term durability. The prominent performance is due to the systematic optimization of chemical composition and geometric structure principally-that is, abundant electrocatalytic active sites, excellent conductivity of metallic 1T' MoS2, synergistic effects among iron, cobalt, nickel ions, and the superaerophobicity of electrode surface for fast mass transfer. The electrode is also demonstrated to function as anode and cathode, simultaneously, delivering 10 mA cm-2 at a cell voltage of 1.429 V. Our results demonstrate substantial improvement in the design of high-efficiency electrodes for water electrolysis.
Related Concept Videos
Properties of Transition Metals
Design Example: Designing Water Slide
Bernoulli's principle determines the water's velocity along the slide....
Phase Transitions
Preparation and Reactions of Sulfides
Bonding in Metals
States of Water
Water freezes when the intermolecular forces are greater than the kinetic energy. Unlike most other substances, water is less dense in its solid state than in its liquid state. This is because each water molecule can form...

