INS study of iridate electrocatalysts used for water splitting

The development of effective electrocatalysts to bring about the splitting of water to yield hydrogen and oxygen as fuels is of great contemporary importance. In an electrolyser, the anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is a major limiting step in improving efficiency and acid-resilient electrocatalysts are needed to bring about the effective operation of such devices. We will study some newly developed examples of such materials that have been exposed to acid conditions and embedded in a polymer membrane to mimic their real use. The aim is to use the sensitivity of inelastic neutron spectroscopy to examine the environment of acidic groups and trapped water to better understand the stability and mode of operation of these important energy materials.