Electrochemical Water Oxidation in Acidic Solution Using Titanium Diboride (TiB2) Catalyst

Electrochemical water oxidation is an important anodic process necessary to support many cathodic fuel forming processes. Inexpensive materials capable of water oxidation catalysis are necessary to render renewable energy technologies affordable. In this study, titanium diboride (TiB2) microparticles were explored as an oxygen‐evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalyst in 1.0 M HClO4. An overpotential of 560±20 mV was required to generate a current density of 10 mA cm−2 with a Faradaic efficiency >96 %. TiB2 exhibited a dissolution rate of 0.24 μg cm−2 h−1 which is the slowest rate observed to date for an earth‐abundant OER catalyst in acidic electrolyte at pH 0. Inexpensive and robust: TiB2 proved to be an effective earth‐abundant electrocatalyst for water‐oxidation in acidic electrolyte. An overpotential of 560±20 mV was required to generate a current density of 10 mA cm−2 with a Faradaic efficiency >96 %. TiB2 has the slowest dissolution rate observed to date for an earth‐abundant OER catalyst.