Premium
A Polyimide Nanolayer as a Metal‐Free and Durable Organic Electrode Toward Highly Efficient Oxygen Evolution
Author(s) -
Lin YunXiao,
Feng WeiJie,
Zhang JunJun,
Xue ZhongHua,
Zhao TianJian,
Su Hui,
Hirano ShinIchi,
Li XinHao,
Chen JieSheng
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
angewandte chemie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1521-3757
pISSN - 0044-8249
DOI - 10.1002/ange.201808036
Subject(s) - overpotential , oxygen evolution , electrode , materials science , polymer , polyimide , chemical engineering , metal , catalysis , polymerization , nanotechnology , polymer chemistry , chemistry , electrochemistry , organic chemistry , composite material , metallurgy , layer (electronics) , engineering
The exploitation of metal‐free organic polymers as electrodes for water splitting reactions is limited by their presumably low activity and poor stability, especially for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) under more critical conditions. Now, the thickness of a cheap and robust polymer, poly( p ‐phenylene pyromellitimide) (PPPI) was rationally engineered by an in situ polymerization method to make the metal‐free polymer available for the first time as flexible, tailorable, efficient, and ultra‐stable electrodes for water oxidation over a wide pH range. The PPPI electrode with an optimized thickness of about 200 nm provided a current density of 32.8 mA cm −2 at an overpotential of 510 mV in 0.1 mol L −1 KOH, which is even higher than that (31.5 mA cm −2 ) of commercial IrO 2 OER catalyst. The PPPI electrodes are scalable and stable, maintaining 92 % of its activity after a 48‐h chronoamperometric stability test.