Included
among the many challenges regarding renewable energy technology
are improved electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER).
In this study, we report a novel bifunctional electrocatalyst based
on a highly dense CoO
x
catalyst by introducing
CeO
x
. The CoO
x
catalyst is fabricated by two-step electrodeposition, including
Co seed formation, to obtain a very dense, layered structure, and
CeO
x
is also successfully deposited on
the CoO
x
catalyst. CoO
x
is an active catalyst showing good activity (η = 0.331
V at 10 mA cm–2) and also stability for the OER.
Higher activity is observed with the CeO
x
/CoO
x
electrocatalyst (η = 0.313
V at 10 mA cm–2). From mechanistic studies conducted
with synchrotron-based photoemission electron spectroscopy and DFT
calculations, Ce promotes a synergistic effect by perturbing the electronic
structure of surface Co species (facile formation to CoOOH) on the
CoO
x
catalyst and optimizes the binding
energy of intermediate oxygenated adsorbates.
Dynamics of a polymer gel network is described by the theory proposed by Tanaka, Hocker, and Benedek (THB) that gives the diffusion coefficient of a polymer network D K G f 4 3
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