| Abstract Scope |
In water splitting technology, electrocatalysts that possess favorable kinetics towards two half-reactions, i.e., anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and cathodic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), are the most critical component and govern the conversion cost and energy consumption. Therefore, the search of affordable catalysts with comparable catalytic performance to replace with the current expensive noble-metal-based catalysts in real water conditions is an urgent priority. On the other hand, mining wastes coming from extracting and processing mineral resources, including waste rocks and tailings, have resulted severe environmental issues (~200M dry tonnes disposal per year in Australia) and significant capital loss (estimated disposal cost at $0.02-30/t varying with methods). In this presentation, the effective but facile methods to convert inert mining wastes and some low-cost minerals into active electrocatalysts for electrochemical hydrogen production by phase engineering or defect engineering will be presented. |