In response to the current energetic crisis, researchers have taken on the task to develop new ways to produce renewable energy. The most attractive alternative being the use of solar energy since it is the most abundant of all renewable resources. Even though solar energy is the most abundant, it is an intermittent source of energy. Hence, schemes for storing this energy is of much importance to effectively use it at any time. One way to do this is to store the solar energy in chemical bonds, like in H2, since it has a high-energy density. The production of H2 with the help of the sun can be accomplished by the photoelectrolysis of water. Devices that run this reaction consist of three main components: light absorbing semiconductors, catalysts, and a membrane. In this work, catalysts that perform the oxidative half of water electrolysis (the oxygen evolution reaction, OER) which is the main cause of energy loss during the reaction are being develop with the goal of improving the efficiency of these devices. Zirconium phosphate monolayers (ZrPML’s) were modified with earth-abundant transition metals and studied as OER electrocatalysts. Their activity showed an improved performance compared to that of previously reported metal-modified ZrP nanoparticles. ICP measurements to quantify the amount of metals was performed. With the ICP data we normalized the activity of our systems by the mass of metal in the samples. At an overpotential of 500 mV we obtained a mass activity for our nickel- modified ZrPML’s of over 300 A/gNi. This high mass activity is higher than many known and used OER electrocalysts to date, including RuO2.

Metal-modified zirconium phosphate monolayers for the oxygen evolution reaction

256th National Meeting (2018)

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