The applicability of a composite of graphene with electroactive material as catalyst for OER is rapidly growing. The growth was due first to the enhancement of the rate of OER which was observed by many researchers when composing the electroactive catalyst with graphene. Second due to the fact that the production cost of graphene in large quantities is much lower than that of carbon nanotubes. Third to the remarkable properties of graphene reported so far include high specific surface area,excellent mechanical strength and fracture strength, unparalleled thermal and electricity conductivity excellent pliability (the quality of being easily bent) , and unprecedented impermeability, plus fascinating electronic properties such as the quantum Hall effect.[3]
Many researchers discovered that the there is an enhancement to the rate of OER when graphene is used as a support for the OER catalyst [4,5]]
Here we show that the mixed potential theory[5] predict that the enhancement of the electrode reaction require two important factors.The first is a large surface area of graphene and the second is the high electric conductivity of graphene which implies that graphene acts as a cathodic electrode conjugating the anodic reaction (OER).
[1] S. Ratha et al. Solid State Electrochem, 20,285 (2016).
[2] Z. Jiang et al. J. Mater. Chem. A, 4, 5877 (2016).
[3]Novoselov, K. S.; Geim et al. Science 2004, 306, 666–669.
[4] D. Chen et al.Chem. Soc. Rev., 39, 3157 (2010).
[5] S. Ghosh et al. Inter J. of hydrogen energy 42, 4111(2017).
[6] G.S. Frankel, Chapter 2, Page 17, Fundamentals of Corrosion Kinetics,
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