Mid-infrared assisted water electrolysis as a method to substantially push down the overpotential of the oxygen evolution reaction

Abstract

Photocatalytic- and Photoelectrochemical water splitting is currently performed using radiation sources with wavelengths < 1000 nm, i.e. in the near infrared range (NIR). The fact that water has a broad absorption band, which lies at wavenumbers between 3000 and 3700 cm-1 (stretching mode) and 1650 cm-1 (bending mode), has not been taken into account so far. We irradiated the steel anode with a mid-infrared LED (lambda=3300 nm) while water electrolysis was performed in pH 7-corrected phosphate buffer solution. A significant shift (270 mV) of the cyclic voltammetry (CV) curve towards lower potential values was obtained when the radiation source was on. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report describing the use of a mid-infrared radiation source to increase the efficiency of water electrolysis.