Optimizing the chlorine evolution reaction performance of Co(OH)2 catalyst for enhanced antifouling ability

Underwater optical instruments are commonly plagued by biofouling. As one of the most useful antifouling strategies, electrochemical chlorination is able to prevent biofouling efficiently, but the limited activity and selectivity in chlorine evolution reaction (CER) restrict its practical applications. To address this problem, we focus on the optimization of CER performance of cobalt-based catalysts. In this work, we prepared Co(OH) 2 with different forms, morphologies, and intercalations. By adopting linear sweep voltammetry and electrochemical active surface area analysis, it is demonstrated that the α-Co(OH) 2 exhibits better CER performance than β-Co(OH) 2 does, and the manipulation of α-Co(OH) 2 morphology can help to further enhance CER performance. Meanwhile, the intercalation of α-Co(OH) 2 plays a minor role in the CER. Furthermore, based on the screened synthetic condition, the optimized α-Co(OH) 2 was applied for practical antifouling examination, and its excellent antifouling ability was verified by the investigation on bacteria attachment and glass transmittance. The findings in this work not only enrich our understanding on the effects of synthetic conditions on CER performance of cobalt-based catalysts, but also provide useful insights into the development of electrochemical antifouling strategies.