title: In Situ Activating Ubiquitous Rust towards Low-Cost, Efficient, Free-Standing, and Recoverable Oxygen Evolution Electrodes.
abstract: Developing effective ways to recycle rusted stainless steel and to promote the sluggish oxygen evolution reaction (OER), associated with water splitting and metal-air batteries, is important for a resource-sustainable and environment-friendly society. Herein, we propose a strategy to enable rusted stainless steel plate to be used as an abundant and low-cost OER catalyst, wherein a hydrothermal combined in situ electrochemical oxidation-reduction cycle (EORC) method is developed to mimic and expedite the corrosion process, and thus activate stainless steel into free-standing OER electrodes. Benefiting from the plentiful electrolyte-accessible Fe/(Ni) oxyhydroxides, high conductivity and mechanical stability, this electrode exhibits remarkable OER performances including low overpotential, fast kinetics, and long-term durability. The slight degradation in current after long-term use can be repaired immediately in situ by an EORC.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Resource Utilization, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130022, P. R. China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
authors.forename: Haixia
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Resource Utilization, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130022, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Resource Utilization, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130022, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Fanlu
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Meng
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Resource Utilization, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130022, P. R. China. xbzhang@ciac.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Xinbo
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-5806-159X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
keywords: corrosion; electrocatalysts; iron; oxygen evolution reaction; rust