Splitting Water with Cobalt

KOÇ UNIVERSITY CHEMISTRY SEMINAR

Ferdi Karadaş, Department of Chemistry and Institute of Materials Science and Nanotechnology (UNAM), Bilkent University

H2 economy is one of the most promising candidates of alternative energy sources, which is of great importance due to limited sources of fossil based fuels and the increase in global energy demand. One of the challenges in H2 economy is considered to be the production of O2 and H2 from water, which is called water splitting:

2H2O → O2 + 2H2   E = 1.23 V, at pH = 7

Water splitting consists of two half reactions; water reduction and water oxidation. Research in developing water oxidation and water reduction electrocatalysts have recently been forwarded to cobalt based materials due to promising catalytic activities of cobalt sulfides, phosphides, oxides, and etc [1,2]. Herein, a literature survey on cobalt-based electrocatalysts followed by our recent efforts focusing on the development of electrolytic cells that use cobalt-based Prussian Blue analogues [3], cobalt dicyanamides [4], cobalt borates, and cobaltopolymers as water reduction and water oxidation electrocatalysts will be presented.

1 – Nocera, D. G. Acc. Chem. Res.2012, 45, 767-776.

2 – Anantharaj, S.; Ede, S. R.; Sakthikumar, K.; Karthick, K.; Mishra, S.; Kundu, S. ACS Catal.2016, 6, 8069−8097.

3 – Aksoy, M.; Nune, S. V. K.; Karadaş, F. Inorg. Chem.2016, 55 (9), 4301–4307.

4 – Nune, S. V. K.; Tekin, A. B.; Mishra, R.; Ülker, E.; Karadaş, F. ChemCatChem, 2016, Accepted.