Bench-scale processing of TiBOx/h-BN ceramics for alkaline water splitting applications

The successful development of novel materials for widespread alkaline water splitting has the potential to significantly reduce costs and accelerate industrialization. In this study, the commercialized materials ceramic structure TiBOx/h-BN was processed with a bench-scale facility, reaching the 480 mV overpotential at the current density of 10 mA cm-2 in oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Notably, this modified structure demonstrated stability in harsh industrial environments (6 M KOH, 60 & DEG;C), maintaining a current density of 580 mA cm-2 for 640 h, which suggests its potential to replace existing nickel-based anode materials. During the laboratory modification process, we selectively leached the OER unfavorable structures in the multicomponent ceramics based on the excellent properties of the narrow bandgap of the conductive ceramic bulk. As a result, an interfacial amorphous structure and a highly conductive bulk that synergistically achieves high OER performance were formed. The effectiveness of this method was corroborated by both X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) results. This study provides a new strategy for developing stable and cost-effective OER materials for industrial alkaline water electrolysis (AWE) applications.