Efficient water oxidation at carbon nanotube-polyoxometalate electrocatalytic interfaces.
Water is the renewable, bulk chemical that nature uses to enable carbohydrate production from carbon dioxide. The dream goal of energy research is to transpose this incredibly efficient process and make an artificial device whereby the catalytic splitting of water is finalized to give a continuous production of oxygen and hydrogen. Success in this task would guarantee the generation of hydrogen as a carbon-free fuel to satisfy our energy demands at no environmental cost. Here we show that very efficient and stable nanostructured, oxygen-evolving anodes are obtained by the assembly of an oxygen-evolving polyoxometalate cluster (a totally inorganic ruthenium catalyst) with a conducting bed of multiwalled carbon nanotubes. Our bioinspired electrode addresses the one major challenge of artificial photosynthesis, namely efficient water oxidation, which brings us closer to being able to power the planet with carbon-free fuels.
Toma
Francesca M
FM
Center of Excellence for Nanostructured Materials (CENMAT), INSTM, Dipartimento di Scienze Farmaceutiche, Università di Trieste, Piazzale Europa 1, 34127 Trieste, Italy.
Sartorel
Andrea
A
Iurlo
Matteo
M
Carraro
Mauro
M
Parisse
Pietro
P
Maccato
Chiara
C
Rapino
Stefania
S
Gonzalez
Benito Rodriguez
BR
Amenitsch
Heinz
H
Da Ros
Tatiana
T
Casalis
Loredana
L
Goldoni
Andrea
A
Marcaccio
Massimo
M
Scorrano
Gianfranco
G
Scoles
Giacinto
G
Paolucci
Francesco
F
Prato
Maurizio
M
Bonchio
Marcella
M
D002384:Catalysis; D004563:Electrochemistry; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; D013059:Spectrum Analysis, Raman; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry*
D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; D014867:Water