Low-Cost Pb-Co-Sn film for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction in Acid Media

The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) plays an important role in several industrial processes. However, the high overpotential that the OER requires to take place, has resulted in high costs associated with precious metals used in anodes that catalyze this reaction. Substitute elements, among them Co, have been investigated in order to decrease their price, herein, highlight Pb-Co electrodes that achieved an important decrease in the overpotential needed for the OER. Even though the electrocatalyst ability showed by the Pb-Co anode was considerably high, the current densities achieved were too low to compete with commercial anodes. Therefore, the efficiency to produce O 2 should be increased. The aim of this work was to develop a Pb-Co-Sn film, through anodic electrodeposition, that enables an efficient production of O 2 coupled with stability, low-cost and low overpotential. In order to know the morphological, microstructural and chemical composition, a full characterization of the developed film was carried out. The obtained Pb-Co-Sn film showed higher electrochemical performance than conventional Pb-Ca-Sn anodes, with an overpotential of ∼0.27 V vs NHE at 500 Am −2 , 68% lower than a conventional Pb-Ca-Sn anode.