CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 1,019Electrocatalysts for Energy ConversionIron oxide chemistry and applicationsCO2 Reduction Techniques and Catalysts

Solar-driven, highly sustained splitting of seawater into hydrogen and oxygen fuels

Open access
Kuang, Yun, Kenney, Michael J., Meng, Yongtao, Hung, Wei-Hsuan, Liu, Yijin, Huang, Jianan Erick, Prasanna, Rohit, Li, Pengsong +6 more·2019·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
DOI 10.1073/pnas.1900556116PMC PMC6452679
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Significance: Electrolysis of water to generate hydrogen fuel could be vital to the future renewable energy landscape. Electrodes that can sustain seawater splitting without chloride corrosion could address the issue of freshwater scarcity on Earth. Herein, a hierarchical anode consisting of a nickel–iron hydroxide electrocatalyst layer uniformly coated on a sulfide layer formed on Ni substrate was developed, affording superior catalytic activity and corrosion resistance in seawater electrolysis. In situ-generated polyanion-rich passivating layers formed in the anode are responsible for chloride repelling and high corrosion resistance, leading to new directions for designing and fabricating highly sustained seawater-splitting electrodes and providing an opportunity to use the vast seawater on Earth as an energy carrier.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1073/pnas.1900556116

Cites

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Even at a larger current density of 500 mA cm−2, the required overpotential was merely 320 mV, far below the overpotential of 490 mV required to initiate the reaction of chloride oxidation to hypochlorite.

    “Notably, even at a larger current density of 500 mA cm− 2, the required overpotential was merely 320 mV, far below the overpotential of 490 mV required to initiate the reaction of chloride oxidation to hypo chlorite [13].”

    From Wood aerogel-derived sandwich-like layered nanoelectrodes for alkaline overall seawater electrosplitting (2021) · cites this paper as [13]

    The passage describing the three-electrode measurements (Fig. 2B; page unavailable) reports about 300 mV at 400 mA/cm² and a 490 mV threshold for chloride oxidation to hypochlorite. The higher-current passage (Fig. 3B; page unavailable) reports about 380 mV at 1,500 mA/cm². Our copy does not state the claimed 320 mV at 500 mA/cm². (LLM, conf=0.83)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Seawater-splitting was first investigated by Bennett, involving the HER at the cathode and the chlorine evolution reaction (CIER) at the anode-a two-electron process that yields chlorine or hypochlorite as the value-added product.

    “Seawater-splitting was first investigated by Bennett, [215] involving the HER at the cathode and the chlorine evolution reaction (CIER) at the anode-a two-electron process that yields chlorine or hypochlorite as the value-added product.[42]”

    From Advances in Blue Energy Fuels: Harvesting Energy from Ocean for Self‐Powered Electrolysis (2025) · cites this paper as [42]

    The paper’s introductory discussion (indexed under Abstract; page unavailable) describes chlorine evolution as a two-electron reaction, calls chlorine a high-value product, and shows a two-electron pathway to hypochlorite. It does not describe hypochlorite as a value-added product; it treats hypochlorite formation as a competing reaction that its seawater-splitting system seeks to avoid. The Bennett priority claim is attached to a different citation, [215], rather than this source’s [42]. (LLM, conf=0.84)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • The main issue for seawater splitting is competition between the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and the chlorine evolution reaction (CER) at the anode.

    “The main issue for seawater splitting technique lies in the competion between the OER and the chlorine evolution reaction (CER) at the anode [13,14].”

    From Wood aerogel-derived sandwich-like layered nanoelectrodes for alkaline overall seawater electrosplitting (2021) · cites this paper as [13]

  • Under alkaline conditions, chlorine is converted into hypochlorite with an onset potential of around 490 mV, which is higher than that of the OER.

    “Under alkaline conditions, chlorine is converted into hypo chlorite, with an onset potential of around 490 mV, which is higher than that of the OER.”

    From Wood aerogel-derived sandwich-like layered nanoelectrodes for alkaline overall seawater electrosplitting (2021) · cites this paper as [13]

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

No references could be resolved yet.

Research works printed but not linked: 20

  1. [1]Dresselhaus MS Thomas IL 2001 Alternative energy technologies Nature 414 332 337 11713539
  2. [2]Dunn B Kamath H Tarascon JM 2011 Electrical energy storage for the grid: A battery of choices Science 334 928 935 22096188
  3. [4]Turner JA 2004 Sustainable hydrogen production Science 305 972 974 15310892
  4. [5]Lewis NS Nocera DG 2006 Powering the planet: Chemical challenges in solar energy utilization Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 103 15729 15735 17043226 PMC1635072
  5. [6]Walter MG 2010 Solar water splitting cells Chem Rev 110 6446 6473 21062097
  6. [7]McCrory CCL Jung S Peters JC Jaramillo TF 2013 Benchmarking heterogeneous electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction J Am Chem Soc 135 16977 16987 24171402
  7. [8]Gong M Wang D-Y Chen C-C Hwang B-J Dai H 2015 A mini review on nickel-based electrocatalysts for alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction Nano Res 9 28 46
  8. [9]Zhang J Chen G Müllen K Feng X 2018 Carbon-rich nanomaterials: Fascinating hydrogen and oxygen electrocatalysts Adv Mater 30 e1800528 30043531
  9. [11]Dionigi F Reier T Pawolek Z Gliech M Strasser P 2016 Design criteria, operating conditions, and nickel-iron hydroxide catalyst materials for selective seawater electrolysis ChemSusChem 9 962 972 27010750
  10. [12]van de Krol R Grätzel M 2012 Photoelectrochemical Hydrogen Production Springer New York
  11. [13]Sharma SK 2011 Green Corrosion Chemistry and Engineering: Opportunities and Challenges Wiley New York
  12. [17]Gong M 2013 An advanced Ni-Fe layered double hydroxide electrocatalyst for water oxidation J Am Chem Soc 135 8452 8455 23701670
  13. [18]Surendranath Y Dinca M Nocera DG 2009 Electrolyte-dependent electrosynthesis and activity of cobalt-based water oxidation catalysts J Am Chem Soc 131 2615 2620 19183057
  14. [22]Gong M Dai H 2014 A mini review of NiFe-based materials as highly active oxygen evolution reaction electrocatalysts Nano Res 8 23 39
  15. [23]Trotochaud L Young SL Ranney JK Boettcher SW 2014 Nickel-iron oxyhydroxide oxygen-evolution electrocatalysts: The role of intentional and incidental iron incorporation J Am Chem Soc 136 6744 6753 24779732
  16. [25]Lu X Zhao C 2015 Electrodeposition of hierarchically structured three-dimensional nickel-iron electrodes for efficient oxygen evolution at high current densities Nat Commun 6 6616 25776015 PMC4382694
  17. [26]Gong M 2015 Blending Cr2O3 into a NiO-Ni electrocatalyst for sustained water splitting Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 54 11989 11993 26307213
  18. [27]Bodner M Hofer A Hacker V 2015 H2 generation from alkaline electrolyzer Wiley Interdiscip Rev Energy Environ 4 365 381
  19. [29]Luo J 2014 Water photolysis at 12.3% efficiency via perovskite photovoltaics and Earth-abundant catalysts Science 345 1593 1596 25258076
  20. [30]Louie MW Bell AT 2013 An investigation of thin-film Ni-Fe oxide catalysts for the electrochemical evolution of oxygen J Am Chem Soc 135 12329 12337 23859025

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Kuang, Y., Kenney, M. J., Meng, Y., Hung, W.-H., Liu, Y., Huang, J. E., Prasanna, R., Li, P., Li, Y., Wang, L., Lin, M.-C., McGehee, M. D., Sun, X., & Dai, H.
Affiliations
  • State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering (CN)
  • Stanford University (US)
  • Shandong University of Science and Technology (CN)
  • Feng Chia University (TW)
  • SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (US)
  • Tianjin University of Technology (CN)
  • University of Colorado Boulder (US)
Corresponding author
  • Sun, Xiaoming
  • Dai, Hongjie
ORCID
Venue
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Publisher
National Academy of Sciences
Published
2019-03-18
Volume
116
Issue
14
Pages
6624-6629
ISSN
  • 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
  • 1091-6490
DOI
10.1073/pnas.1900556116
PMC
PMC6452679
OpenAlex
W2922256802
Cited by
1,019
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 147 · 2025: 184 · 2024: 196 · 2023: 176 · 2022: 130 · 2021: 112 · 2020: 63 · 2019: 11
FWCI
16.81
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • U.S. Department of Energy (DE-SC0016165, DE-AC02-76SF00515)
  • National Science Foundation (ECCS-1542152)
  • National Key Research and Development Project (2016YFF0204402)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion
  • Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Iron oxide chemistry and applications
  • Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › CO2 Reduction Techniques and Catalysts
Keywords
seawater electrolysis, hydrogen production, chloride corrosion resistance, anode design, renewable energy carriers

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review