Stainless steel as an efficient electrocatalyst for water oxidation in alkaline solution

Commercially available 316L stainless steel was found to be a highly efficient material for catalytic water oxidation. By directly using the stainless steel as an anode without any substrate support, a 10 mA/cm2 current density with 96% Faradaic efficiency was obtained at ŋ = 0.37 V in alkaline solution (1 M KOH). The stainless steel film exhibits excellent longevity and a small Tafel slope of 30 mV/decade in water oxidation, making it an ideal anodic electrocatalyst.

Graphical abstractCommercially available 316L stainless steel was found to be a highly efficient material for electrocatalytic water oxidation under alkaline conditions.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide