Investigation reveals variations in OER activities with different carbon materials, suggesting implications for catalyst design.
Perovskite oxide based composites with conductive carbonaceous materials have garnered significant attention for their high oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity in alkaline media. While extensive research has focused on the rational design of perovskites, the role of carbon additives has received less attention despite their thermodynamic instability under OER conditions. This study investigated the OER and corrosion behavior of composite catalysts by employing LaCoO3 (LCO) and Sr2Co0.8Fe0.2O3Cl (SCFOC) catalysts with different OER mechanisms and activities, and carbonaceous materials with different graphitization degrees. We applied the online differential electrochemical mass spectroscopy for the quantification of the CO2 evolution current hidden in the overall oxidation current at the OER potential. The LCO composite with amorphous carbon exhibited a substantial CO2 evolution when compared with the graphitized carbon, indicating that the apparent OER currents include contributions from carbon oxidative corrosion. In contrast, the noticeable CO2 evolution current of the SCFOC composite was almost independent of the graphitization degree of the carbon, suggesting overestimation of its OER activity. These findings highlight the importance of selecting appropriate carbon and optimizing the compositions for precise determination of the OER activities from a methodological viewpoint, while balancing the performance and durability from a practical viewpoint.
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Ni et al. (2025) studied this question.
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