Synergistic\nEffect of Cobalt/Ferrocene as a Catalyst\nfor the Oxygen Evolution Reaction

There is a great deal of interest\nin the development\nof electrocatalysts\nfor the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) that are stable and have high\nactivity because this anodic half-reaction is the main bottleneck\nin water splitting and other key technologies. Cobalt and iron oxide\nand oxyhydroxide electrocatalysts constitute a cheaper alternative\nto the highly active and commonly used Ir- and Ru-based catalysts.\nMost of the described electrocatalysts require tedious synthetic and\nexpensive preparation procedures. We report here a facile and straightforward\npreparation of an electrocatalyst by a combination of commercial compounds,\nsuch as cobalt chloride and ferrocene. A highly active and stable\nOER electrocatalyst is obtained, which shows a low overpotential in\nthe alkaline medium as a consequence of a synergistic effect between\nboth compounds and is inexpensive.