Fabrication of TiO2 Cathodes by Anodic Oxidation for Hydrogen Generation from Electrolysis of Water

Abstract

In this investigation, titanium oxide plates were used as cathode for hydrogen production in the aqueous solutions of sulfuric acid, potassium hydroxide, acetic acid and ammonia hydroxides electrolytes separately. Gaseous hydrogen was produced at the cathode and oxygen at the anode. For this purpose, titanium plates were fabricated in acid solution by anodic oxidation. Microstructure of TiO2 nanorod observation was conducted with scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The effects of operating conditions and the electrochemical test parameters, such as electrolytes concentration, temperature, and cell voltage were investigated. Also the performance of TiO2 cathode was compared to zirconium oxide and graphite electrodes. The results show that the highly rated, hydrogen production performance on TiO2 cathode has better than the other electrodes. The maximum rate of hydrogen production is by TiO2 cathode 8.18 ml/ (h. cm 2 ). The cell efficiency for water electrolysis was reached 95% using titanium oxide electrode in 1.5 M H2SO4.