Electrocatalytic water splitting is one of the most promising next generation technologies for environmentally friendly and inexpensive energy conversion and storage. However,one of its biggest obstacles is the sluggishness of the oxidation reaction, which is key to the whole process. State-of-the-art technology relies on metal oxide electrocatalysts, or but both cost and performance still need to be improved. In the journal Angewandte Chemie,Chinese scientists absorb now introduced oxidized, that is, and rusty,stainless-steel plates as excellent electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution. That technology could represent a surprisingly simple approach toward solving a long-standing problem.
Source: phys.org