A Facile Synthesis of Size-Controllable IrO2 and RuO2 Nanoparticles for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction

• Published in: Electrocatalysis 2016-09, Vol.7 (5), p.420-427
• Main Authors: Nguyen, Tam D., Scherer, Günther G., Xu, Zhichuan J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Annealing; Carbon black; Catalysis; Chemical synthesis; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Electrochemistry; Electrolysis; Energy Systems; Ethylene glycol; Kinetics; Metal chlorides; Nanoparticles; Original Research; Oxygen evolution reactions; Physical Chemistry; Polyvinylpyrrolidone; Ruthenium oxide
• ISSN: 1868-2529; 1868-5994
• DOI: 10.1007/s12678-016-0321-2

The efficiency of the water electrolysis process is restricted by the sluggish kinetics of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Developing efficient catalysts and their synthesis methods is highly desired to improve the kinetics of the OER and therefore the overall efficiency of the water electrolysis. In this report, we present a facile wet-chemical method for synthesizing IrO 2 and RuO 2 nanoparticles (NPs) for the OER. The nanoparticles were synthesized by reducing metal chlorides in ethylene glycol in the presence of polyvinylpyrrolidone, followed by annealing in air. The particle size was controlled by adjusting the annealing temperature. The activity of IrO 2 and RuO 2 NPs supported on carbon black was investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV) in alkaline (0.1 M KOH) electrolyte. As-synthesized IrO 2 and RuO 2 NPs showed high OER activity. The IrO 2 NPs exhibited a specific activity of up to 3.5 (±1.6) μA/cm 2 oxide at 1.53 V (vs. RHE), while the RuO 2 NPs achieved a value of 124.2 (±8) μA/cm 2 oxide . Moreover, RuO 2 NPs showed a mass activity for OER, up to 102.6 (±10.5) A/g oxide at 1.53 V (vs. RHE), which represents the highest value reported in the literature to date. Graphical abstract A facile wet-chemical method for synthesizing IrO 2 and RuO 2 nanoparticles (NPs) is reported here. The nanoparticles were synthesized by reducing metal chlorides in ethylene glycol in the presence of polyvinylpyrrolidone, followed by annealing in air. The size of particles can be controlled by varying the annealing temperature and subsequently their OER activities are varied