Hydrogen is an excellent energy carrier, and the way of solar-powered electrolysis of water to produce hydrogen is an effective method for energy storage. In the traditional SPEWE, since the high oxygen evolution potential, oxygen will cause serious dissolution to the carrier of carbon; in the oxygen evolution reaction process, dissolution and passivation of anode will occur and to shorten its live when electrode with high oxygen evolution overpotential working under the high potential. The presence of multiple high-energy intermediate state makes the oxygen evolution reaction one of the most difficult steps in the electrolyzed water. Thus, the preparation of ultra-low overpotential oxygen evolution catalyst will help to achieve efficient electrolysis of water.

 

Tungsten trioxide (WO₃) as the photolysis of water oxygen evolution catalyst is compelling and some researching success have been made, such as WO₃ photolysis aquatic oxygen evolution, and the optimum oxygen production under visible light is about 79.9μmol / (L.h); by controlling chemical potential can significantly improve the stability of WO₃’s photocatalytic activity, ect..

 

Not long ago, an international research team of Canada, China and the United States developed a colloidal Fe-Co-W oxyhydroxides multi-metal oxygen evolution catalyst with the lowest oxygen evolution overpotential so far. That oxygen evolution catalyst regulates the electronic structure of iron, cobalt by adding tungsten, and they prepared the catalyst innovatively under room temperature by sol-gel method, since the lower sol each metal atom can achieve a homogeneous mix of different metal oxides to avoid lattice mismatched phase separation. Fe, Co, and WO₃ homogeneously disperse in this gel catalyst from the atomic scale to have excellent catalytic performance. In addition, the subsequent heat treatment of catalyst has found that, after 500 ℃ annealing heat treatment, the oxygen evolution potential of colloidal Fe-Co-W oxyhydroxides multi-metal oxygen evolution catalyst will rise and cause its catalytic lower. This research result has found a new direction for further optimization of the oxygen evolution catalyst, and expected to be widely used in energy conversion and storage.