Electronically Conductive, Multifunctional Polymer Binder for Highly Active, Stable, and Abundant Composite Electrodes for Oxygen Evolution

The electrolysis of water to form hydrogen and oxygen is a promising method to store renewable energy. This method requires electrodes that convert water into protons, electrons, and oxygen. We report a multifunctional polymer that conducts electrons and ions and may coreact with the electrocatalyst in the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The electrodes were prepared in two steps from off-the-shelf reagents. They operate with low loadings of abundant catalysts and are among the most active (100 mA cm–2 at 1.43 V vs RHE (1.41 V, iR-corrected)) and stable electrodes, reported to date under harsh conditions (85 °C, 6 M KOH, 120 h (0.69% loss over the first 14.5 h and then 0.61% loss over 105.5 h)). Control experiments on glassy carbon electrodes showed that the polycarbazole system significantly outperformed a Nafion system of the same catalyst loading. This simple strategy can be applied to other types of electrodes.