Publication date: 27th March 2025
Developing effective electrocatalysts for large-scale seawater splitting that can prevent anodic corrosion while efficiently driving oxygen evolution is a major challenge. Surface engineering plays a pivotal role in advancing electrocatalysts, bridging the gap between basic research and the real-world needs of industrial water-splitting technologies. In this study, we introduce the CoZnCr@MXene heterostructure, which achieves a remarkable cell voltage of 1.55 V at a current density of 50 mA cm⁻², surpassing the performance of RuO₂ in alkaline seawater electrolytes. This outstanding performance is attributed to the combined benefits of compositional optimization, surface modification, and the integration of conductive supports, all of which contribute to significant reductions in overpotentials for both the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The CoZnCr@MXene catalyst shows exceptional stability and selective oxidation in alkaline seawater, with the MXene incorporation effectively preventing chloride-induced corrosion and improving charge transfer efficiency. Additionally, when used in an anion exchange membrane electrolyzer, the CoZnCr@MXene catalyst delivers a current density of 500 mA cm⁻² at an operating voltage of 1.72 V at 60 °C, achieving a cell efficiency of 77.8%. This work marks a significant step forward in the development of durable, noble-metal-free electrodes for industrial-scale alkaline seawater electrolysis.
P.C. acknowledges the financial support from the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska - Curie grant agreement No. 101130803.
nanoGe is a prestigious brand of successful science conferences that are developed along the year in different areas of the world since 2009. Our worldwide conferences cover cutting-edge materials topics like perovskite solar cells, photovoltaics, optoelectronics, solar fuel conversion, surface science, catalysis and two-dimensional materials, among many others.
Previously nanoGe Spring Meeting (NSM) and nanoGe Fall Meeting (NFM), MATSUS is a multiple symposia conference focused on a broad set of topics of advanced materials preparation, their fundamental properties, and their applications, in fields such as renewable energy, photovoltaics, lighting, semiconductor quantum dots, 2-D materials synthesis, charge carriers dynamics, microscopy and spectroscopy semiconductors fundamentals, etc.
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV) is celebrated yearly in May. The main topics are the development, function and modeling of materials and devices for hybrid and organic solar cells. The field is now dominated by perovskite solar cells but also other hybrid technologies, as organic solar cells, quantum dot solar cells, and dye-sensitized solar cells and their integration into devices for photoelectrochemical solar fuel production.
Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics
The main topics of the Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics (IPEROP) are discussed every year in Asia-Pacific for gathering the recent advances in the fields of material preparation, modeling and fabrication of perovskite and hybrid and organic materials. Photovoltaic devices are analyzed from fundamental physics and materials properties to a broad set of applications. The conference also covers the developments of perovskite optoelectronics, including light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.
The International Conference on Perovskite Thin Film Photovoltaics Perovskite Photonics and Optoelectronics (NIPHO) is the best place to hear the latest developments in perovskite solar cells as well as on recent advances in the fields of perovskite light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.