Study of the mechanism of water oxidation by catalysts operating at pH7 and its incorporation in electrodes printed in 3D

Abstract

Much effort has been made in the world to develop substitutes for fossil fuels. These fuels are the main responsible for greenhouse gas emissions and have potential long term exhaustion. Hence, strategies to obtain new green energy sources that are sustainable and meet global demands are one of the great challenges for the current scientific community and governments. A promising alternative is the production of hydrogen from the process of water splitting. Water is one of the most abundant molecules on Earth and can be decomposed into H2 and O2. Although the process seems simple, the oxidation reaction of water is both thermodynamically (E0 = -1.229 V vs NHE) and kinetically unfavorable and therefore requires a catalyst to break down this energetic barrier. The challenges in the development of catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) or water oxidation are: i) obtaintion of materials that operate under conditions of low overpotential; ii) stability under conditions of strong oxidation; iii) composition based on abundant elements in nature; iv) high stability and robustness and v) understanding of water oxidation mechanisms. Based on this scenario, the great motivation of this project is the study of the mechanism of water oxidation by cobalt-Prussian blue catalysts and the development of 3D electrodes printed with these catalysts. As a result, we expected to determine the mechanism of water oxidation by these catalysts and it is expected that the knowledge produced will be used to design new and more efficient catalysts, we want to correlate structure and composition with catalytic activity. In addition, these catalysts will be incorporated into polymer matrices, then the electrodes will be printed in 3D, the question we would like to answer in this part is whether the properties of the catalysts are retained when incorporated into polymer filaments and printed on 3D printers. Finally, we expect to produce significant advances in the area of water oxidation (AU)