Study On Electrocatalytic Performance Of Normal Temperature Blackened Copper Electrode For Water Electrolysis

With the increasing consumption of fossil fuels caused a global energy crisis,prompting people to explore sustainable green energy research and development.As an ideal secondary energy with strong sustainability,environmental protection and high efficiency,hydrogen energy has attracted much attention in the world.Electrolyzed water is an important technical means to obtain green hydrogen energy.For the electrolytic water hydrogen production industry,the energy consumption caused by the overpotential of hydrogen evolution greatly reduces the power conversion efficiency,which hinders the development of the industry.It is of great significance to explore and develop electrode materials with high catalytic activity for hydrogen production from electrolytic water to reduce hydrogen evolution potential and improve energy conversion efficiency.Electrochemically speaking,the first problem to be solved to reduce the cost of electrolytic water is the loss of the electrode during the hydrogen production process and the reduction of the hydrogen evolution overpotential.The former can be achieved by selecting low-cost materials,loss-resistant materials and material surface conversion film technology to protect the electrode to increase its life.The latter can be achieved by increasing the surface activity or active area of the electrode and selecting materials with high catalytic activity as hydrogen production electrodes.Copper-based catalytic materials have the characteristics of low cost,large global reserves,and good electrochemical performance.Therefore,it is of great significance to develop and apply copper-based catalytic materials.The research of this paper is as follows:(1)By consulting the literature,the suitable room temperature blackening liquid system was selected,and the surface of the foam copper was treated by the selenium copper room temperature blackening technology.The optimal room temperature blackening process was determined by controlling the blackening time of the room temperature blackening system through the control variable method.The electrode after room temperature blackening under the optimal conditions was subjected to physical test and electrochemical test.It was concluded that under the condition of system temperature 25°C and current density 10 m A/cm~2,the blackening electrode obtained by soaking the foam copper in the room temperature blackening solution for 11 min had the smallest hydrogen evolution overpotential.It has good catalytic hydrogen evolution activity and also has a certain oxygen evolution activity.The foamed copper under the blackening condition has the best comprehensive performance,good appearance,corrosion resistance and wear resistance.(2)The Cu-CNTs film was prepared by mixing copper powder and carbon nanotubes by powder metallurgy method.The copper powder was blackened by the best room temperature blackening process developed by the blackening process of copper foam.The effect of different mixing ratio on the performance of the film electrode was studied,and the electrode prepared by the blackened copper powder was physically characterized and electrochemically tested.The results show that the Cu-CNTs thin film electrode prepared by ball milling for 10h and blackening the copper powder for 11 min at room temperature has better hydrogen evolution performance than the Cu-CNTs electrode without blackening treatment.With the increase of the ratio of Cu to CNTs,the hydrogen evolution overpotential of the thin film electrode decreases gradually,indicating that the greater the mixing amount of copper powder and the room temperature blackening process are combined,which is beneficial to the performance improvement of the electrode.