Best Practice for Evaluating Electrocatalysts for Hydrogen Economy

Screening new electrocatalysts is key to the development of new materials for next-generation energy devices such as fuel cells and electrolyzers. The counter electrodes used in such tests are often made from materials such as Pt and Au, which can dissolve during testing and deposit onto test electrocatalysts, resulting in inaccurate results. The most common strategy for preventing this effect is to separate the counter electrode from the test material using an ion-transporting Nafion membrane. Here, we use X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray analysis, mass spectrometry, and voltammetry to demonstrate the limitations of this approach during constant-current, extended stability testing of electrocatalysts for H₂ evolution. We show that Nafion membranes cannot prevent contamination of carbon electrocatalysts by Pt and Au counter electrodes, leading to an apparent increase in the electrocatalytic activity of the carbon. We then demonstrate that carbon counter electrodes in undivided cells can contaminate and deactivate Pt and Au electrocatalysts for H₂ evolution. We show that use of a setup composed of a glass frit separating a carbon counter electrode from the test electrocatalyst can prevent these effects. Finally, we discuss these phenomena using H₂ evolution at MoS₂ and at a K₆[P₂W₁₈O₆₂](H₂O)₁₄/carbon nanotube composite as test reactions.