A vertical aligned carbon nanotube based platform for hydrogen production by water electrolysis

A novel electrode for water electrolysis based on the graphite attached with vertical aligned carbon nanotubes is presented. This carbon nanotubes based electrode, synthesized directly by PECVD, provides a 6 times enhancement of water splitting current density and efficiency compared to the graphite electrode in acidic electrolyte due to its multiplied surface area and higher catalytic activity. In addition, our PECVD grown vertically aligned carbon nanotubes on graphite reveals good stability and long term sustainability without any complicated and expensive pre-treatment. Furthermore, the electrolyte of the neutral potassium phosphate solution (KPi electrolyte) with Cobalt ion as the catalyst which was proposed recently is employed to demonstrate the long term compatibility of this electrode to various environments including in-situ coating with metals as catalysts. our proposed vertical aligned CNTs electrode is a promising platform for the large scale economic hydrogen production by water electrolysis.