Scientists from University of New South Wales (UNSW) Australia have developed a highly efficient oxygen-producing electrode for splitting water. The development has the potential to be scaled for mass industrial production of clean energy fuel—hydrogen, a great source for powering mobile devices, and storing electricity generated from renewable energy, such as solar.

The technology is based on a low-cost, specially coated material that allows for the oxygen bubbles to escape quickly.

"Our electrode is the most efficient oxygen-producing electrode in alkaline electrolytes reported to date, to the best of our knowledge," says Associate Professor Chuan Zhao of the UNSW School of Chemistry. "It is inexpensive, sturdy and simple to make and can potentially be scaled up for industrial application of water splitting."

The UNSW electrode is made from two non-precious and abundant metals—nickel and iron—unlike water electrolyzers, which use precious metals as catalysts. The layer of nickel and iron has pores about 50 nanometers (nm) across, which reduce the amount of electricity needed for water splitting to occur.

"The three-dimensional architecture of the electrode means it has an enormous surface area on which the oxygen evolution reaction can occur," says Zhao. The larger bubbles of oxygen can escape easily through the big holes in the foam. The smaller holes make the electrode surface "wetter," so the bubbles do not stick to it, which is a common problem that makes electrodes less efficient.

This research is published in the journal Nature Communications.