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Divalent anion intercalation and etching-hydrolysis strategies to construct ultra-stable electrodes for seawater splitting

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Abstract

Developing stable electrodes for seawater splitting remains a great challenge due to the detachment of catalysts at a large operating current and severe anode corrosion caused by chlorine. Herein, divalent anion intercalation and etching-hydrolysis strategies are deployed to synthesize the ultra-stable anode, dendritic Fe(OH)3 grown on Ni(SO4)0.3(OH)1.4-Ni(OH)2. Experimental results reveal that the anode exhibits good activity and excellent stability in alkaline simulated seawater. After 500 h, the current density operated at 1.72 V remains 99.5%, about 210 mA cm−2. The outstanding stability originates from the etching-hydrolysis strategy, which strengthens the interaction between the catalyst and the carrier and retards thus the detachment of catalysts at a large current density. Besides, theoretical simulations confirm that the intercalated divalent anions, such as SO 2−4 and CO 2−3 , can weaken the adsorption strength of chlorine on the surface of catalysts and hinder the coupling and hybridization between chlorine and nickel, which slows down the anode corrosion and improves catalytic stability. Furthermore, the two-electrode system shows the remarkable 95.1% energy efficiency at 2,000 A m−2 and outstanding stability in 6 mol L−1 KOH + seawater at 80 °C.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported from the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2020M682250), the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2022QB062, ZR2021MB070) and the DNL Cooperation Fund, CAS (DNL202010). Additionally, we also thank the Shanxi Supercomputing Center of China for its support with the calculations.

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  1. These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Biofuels, Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266101, China

    Jiajia Lu & Han-Pu Liang

  2. Henan Provincial Key Laboratory of Nanocomposites and Applications, Institute of Nano-Structured Functional Materials, Huanghe Science and Technology College, Zhengzhou, 450006, China

    Jiajia Lu

  3. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Henan Normal University, Xinxiang, 453007, China

    Yang Liu

  4. Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Han-Pu Liang

  5. Shandong Energy Institute, Qingdao, 266101, China

    Han-Pu Liang

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  1. Jiajia Lu
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Correspondence to Han-Pu Liang.

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Supporting information The supporting information is available online at chem.scichina.com and link.springer.com/journal/11426. The supporting materials are published as submitted, without typesetting or editing. The responsibility for scientific accuracy and content remains entirely with the authors.

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Divalent anion intercalation and etching etching-hydrolysis strategies to construct ultra ultra-stable electrodes for seawater splitting

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Lu, J., Liu, Y. & Liang, HP. Divalent anion intercalation and etching-hydrolysis strategies to construct ultra-stable electrodes for seawater splitting. Sci. China Chem. 67, 687–695 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-023-1761-8

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