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Hydrogen electrocatalysis

A basic solution

Nature Chemistry volume 5, pages 255–256 (2013)Cite this article

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Hydrogen–oxygen alkaline fuel cells are promising devices for the 'hydrogen economy' but their oxidation of hydrogen fuel is slow compared with that of acidic fuel cells. More efficient electrocatalysts have now been prepared in which the adsorption of hydroxyl groups onto the electrode surface is controlled through suitable promoters.

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Figure 1: The activity for the hydrogen oxidation and the hydrogen evolution reactions depends not only on the binding of the hydrogen intermediate (Hads) but, in alkaline media, also on the binding of hydroxyls (OHads) to the surface, as represented by the additional coordinate for OHads binding on the 'volcano plot'.

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  1. Marc T. M. Koper is at the Leiden Institute of Chemistry, Leiden University, PO Box 9502, 2300 RA, Leiden, the Netherlands,

    Marc T. M. Koper

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Correspondence to Marc T. M. Koper.

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Koper, M. A basic solution. Nature Chem 5, 255–256 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.1600

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