Preparation of Practical High-Performance Electrodes for Acidic and Alkaline Media Water Electrolysis

The synthesis of electrocatalyst and the electrode preparation were merged into a one-step process and proved to be a versatile method to synthesize metal oxide electrocatalysts on the conductive carbon paper (CP). Very simply, the metal precursor deposited on the CP was thermally treated by a torch-gun for just 6 s, resulting in the formation of RuO₂ , Co₃ O₄ , and mixed oxide nanoparticles. The material could be directly used as working electrode for oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Compared with commercial and other state-of-the-art electrocatalysts, the fabricated electrode showed a superior electrocatalytic activity for OER in 1 m HClO₄ and 1 m KOH in terms of not only a low overpotential to reach 10 mA cm^-2 but also a high current density at 1.6 V_RHE with satisfying a long-term stability. The novel strategy without requiring time-consuming and uneconomical steps could be expanded to the preparation of various metal oxides on conductive substrates towards diverse electrocatalytic applications.