Oxygen-evolution reaction by gold and cobalt in iron and nickel free electrolyte

Abstract Hydrogen production by electrolysis is a promising method for storing energy. For water electrolysis, water-oxidation reaction is critical to provide electrons for water reduction. However, water-oxidation reaction is sluggish, and thus, remarkable efforts to understand and improve the performance of water-oxidation reaction have been made. The present study investigates the Fe and Ni impurities of electrolytes as an important issue on oxygen-evolution reaction (OER) and electrochemistry of cobalt and gold. For the first time, in this study, OER for cobalt and gold was investigated in Fe and Ni-free KOH. This paper is highlighted the role of impurities in electrolyte for OER. The experiments showed that cobalt oxide is a relatively good catalyst for OER in a pure (Ni and Fe free) electrolyte. However, gold is not a good catalyst for OER in a pure electrolyte.