Composition-Activity Correlation of Gold-Supported Nickel Cobalt Cerium Catalyst for Electrochemical Oxygen Evolution

Inspired by natural photosynthesis, artificial photosynthesis is a promising renewable energy technology that produces valuable fuel from water, carbon dioxide and sunlight with no CO₂ emissions. The competence of this technology depends heavily on the catalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The catalysts must have a low overpotential, consist of earth-abundant materials, and be durable to corrosion. We now report the superior performance and stability of novel Ni-Co-Ce ternary heterogeneous catalyst electrodeposited on gold substrate. Activity versus correlation study of Ni-Co-Ce has been conducted using various electrochemistry techniques and Inductive Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). All electrochemical studies were done in 1.0M KOH at room temperature. Activity studies showed that certain compositions of Ni-Co-Ce catalysts demonstrated overpotentials as low as 270mV. In addition to its high catalytic efficiency, stable performance for over two hours was demonstrated through stability tests. ICP-MS tests verified the actual catalyst film composition, as opposed to electrolyte composition, and revealed that the activity depends closely with Ce composition. This study establishes the basis for further mechanistic studies and scale up of artificial photosynthesis technology.