Self-adaptive amorphous CoOxCly electrocatalyst for sustainable chlorine evolution in acidic brine

Mengjun Xiao, Qianbao Wu, Ruiqi Ku, Liujiang Zhou, Chang Long, Junwu Liang (), Andraž Mavrič, Lei Li, Jing Zhu, Matjaz Valant, Jiong Li, Zhenhua Zeng and Chunhua Cui ()
Additional contact information
Mengjun Xiao: University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
Qianbao Wu: University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
Ruiqi Ku: Harbin Institute of Technology
Liujiang Zhou: University Electronic Science and Technology of China
Chang Long: University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
Junwu Liang: Yulin Normal University
Andraž Mavrič: University of Nova Gorica
Lei Li: University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
Jing Zhu: University of Science and Technology of China
Matjaz Valant: University of Nova Gorica
Jiong Li: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Zhenhua Zeng: Purdue University
Chunhua Cui: University of Electronic Science and Technology of China

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract Electrochemical chlorine evolution reaction is of central importance in the chlor-alkali industry, but the chlorine evolution anode is largely limited by water oxidation side reaction and corrosion-induced performance decay in strong acids. Here we present an amorphous CoOxCly catalyst that has been deposited in situ in an acidic saline electrolyte containing Co2+ and Cl- ions to adapt to the given electrochemical condition and exhibits ~100% chlorine evolution selectivity with an overpotential of ~0.1 V at 10 mA cm−2 and high stability over 500 h. In situ spectroscopic studies and theoretical calculations reveal that the electrochemical introduction of Cl- prevents the Co sites from charging to a higher oxidation state thus suppressing the O-O bond formation for oxygen evolution. Consequently, the chlorine evolution selectivity has been enhanced on the Cl-constrained Co-O* sites via the Volmer-Heyrovsky pathway. This study provides fundamental insights into how the reactant Cl- itself can work as a promoter toward enhancing chlorine evolution in acidic brine.

Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-41070-7 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-41070-7

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-41070-7

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().