title: Efficient water oxidation at carbon nanotube-polyoxometalate electrocatalytic interfaces.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Center of Excellence for Nanostructured Materials (CENMAT), INSTM, Dipartimento di Scienze Farmaceutiche, Università di Trieste, Piazzale Europa 1, 34127 Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesca M
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Toma
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sartorel
authors.forename: Matteo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Iurlo
authors.forename: Mauro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Carraro
authors.forename: Pietro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Parisse
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Maccato
authors.forename: Stefania
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rapino
authors.forename: Benito Rodriguez
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Gonzalez
authors.forename: Heinz
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Amenitsch
authors.forename: Tatiana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Da Ros
authors.forename: Loredana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Casalis
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Goldoni
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Marcaccio
authors.forename: Gianfranco
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Scorrano
authors.forename: Giacinto
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Scoles
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Paolucci
authors.forename: Maurizio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Prato
authors.forename: Marcella
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bonchio
mesh_terms: D002384:Catalysis; D004563:Electrochemistry; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; D013059:Spectrum Analysis, Raman; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; D014867:Water