Electrochemical energy conversion technologies based on the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are at the heart of many efforts to achieve a sustainable future, carbon-free fuel, and a circular economy. The sluggish kinetics of oxygen electrocatalysis, as well as the high overpotential required to attain practical current densities, limit the efficiency of several promising electrochemical technologies, including water and carbon dioxide electrolyzers, metal–oxygen batteries, and fuel cells. The most efficient OER catalysts are precious metals such as iridium- and ruthenium-based materials (i.e., IrO₂ and RuO₂). This fact represents a challenge against the cost-effective implementation of these electrolysis technologies.^1-3 As a result, there is a necessity for the development of cost effective PGM-free OER catalysts, with equivalent or superior activity and durability to the PGM catalysts.

This presentation will discuss the development and implementation of high-throughput synthesis methodology for PGM-free OER catalysts exploiting the rich chemistry of nanoporous materials^4-7 and Argonne National Laboratory's High-Throughput Research Facility. The developed high-throughput methodology will expedite the assessment of the effect of composition and synthesis parameters on the activity of perovskite oxide alkaline electrolyte OER catalysts.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Advanced Research Projects Agency Energy (ARPA-E) under the DIFFERENTIATE program. This work was authored in part by Argonne National Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science laboratory operated for DOE by UChicago Argonne, LLC under contract no. DE-AC02-06CH11357.

References

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