Iridium and Ruthenium Modified Polyaniline Polymer Leads to Nanostructured Electrocatalysts with High Performance Regarding Water Splitting.

The breakthrough in water electrolysis technology for the sustainable production of H, considered as a future fuel, is currently hampered by the development of tough electrocatalytic materials. We report a new strategy of fabricating conducting polymer-derived nanostructured materials to accelerate the electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), and water splitting. Extended physical (XRD, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX)) and electrochemical (cyclic voltammetry (CV), linear sweep voltammetry (LSV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS)) methods were merged to precisely characterize the as-synthesized iridium and ruthenium modified polyaniline (PANI) materials and interrogate their efficiency.

Nanostructured Carbon-Nitrogen-Sulfur-Nickel Networks Derived From Polyaniline as Bifunctional Catalysts for Water Splitting.

The development of reliable production routes for sustainable hydrogen (H), which is an essential feedstock for industrial processes and energy carrier for fuel cells, is needed. It appears to be an unavoidable alternative to significantly reduce the dependence on conventional energy sources based on fossil fuels without increasing the atmospheric CO levels. Among the different power-to-X scenarios to access high purity H, the electrochemical approach based on electrolysis looks to be a promising sustainable solution at both the small and large industrial scales.