ELECTROCATALYTIC COBALT-VANADIUM COATINGS FOR THE HYDROGEN EVOLUTION REACTION

Abstract

The study of existing energy-saving materials and obtaining the new ones for reducing the cost of the hydrogen production, is relevant for modern hydrogen energy industry. Such properties can be predicted for materials containing vanadium, molybdenum, tungsten and exhibiting catalytic activity for the hydrogen evolution reaction Aforementioned metals can be co-deposited from aqueous solutions with iron subgroup metal-catalysts through the formation of cluster intermetallic compounds with Me-V bond adsorbed on the cathode surface.  The induced co-deposition of cobalt with vanadium from the complex citrate electrolyte was investigated in the current work. As a result of the research, it was found that the uniform microcrystalline light-gray high-quality cobalt-vanadium alloy coating is possible to precipitate from a citrate electrolyte with content of 20 g/dm3 vanadium (in terms of metal) as a citrate complex The process was carried out at a current density of 5–10 A/dm2, at a temperature of 30–40°С, pH = 2,8–3,2. The content of vanadium in the coating is 0,37–0,53 % by weight. The maximum vanadium content in the coating is observed at current densities 8–9 А/dm2. The catalytic activity study of the coating that was obtained using cobalt-vanadium alloy in the reaction of hydrogen reduction at the cathode was performed in solution of 2,5М NaOH + 0,02 M NaCl. By increasing the vanadium content in the coating from 0,37 to 0,53% the hydrogen evolution overvoltage is reduced by 0,5 V. It was found that the overvoltage of the hydrogen ion evolution reaction on cathodes from steel 20 with cobalt-vanadium coating is 0.08–0,1 V lower, and the exchange current is higher than on electrodes made of steel 20, which are used in industrial water-alkali electrolysis. This indicates the electrocatalytic activity of the investigated materials for the hydrogen evolution reaction. Electrodes with coating, obtained by cobalt-vanadium alloy can be recommended as a cathode material for the hydrogen electrochemical production. Hydrogen evolution overvoltage reduction also decrease the energy consumption for this process by 15–20 %.