# Mechanistic Insights into Enhanced Alkaline Oxygen Evolution on Zn-Al Alloy Electrodes

Source: [Mechanistic Insights into Enhanced Alkaline Oxygen Evolution on Zn-Al Alloy Electrodes](<https://www.sota2.com/research/paper/69bb830a0636e5bf4afc1a44>)

Collection index: [llms.txt](<https://www.sota2.com/research/llms.txt>)

Data updated: 2026-03-20T05:00:12.244Z

Authors: Abdul Ahad Mamun, Rokon Uddin Mahmud, Shahin Aziz, Muhammad Shahriar Bashar, Ahmed Sharif, Muhammad Anisuzzaman Talukder

Published: 2026-03-18T16:38:42.000Z

## Abstract

Electrochemical water electrolysis, which produces clean energy carriers to mitigate carbon emissions, lacks suitable, low-cost electrodes for efficient oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in alkaline water splitting. To address this challenge, we developed Zn-Al alloy electrodes with varying Al contents up to 20 wt.% via powder metallurgy method and conducted electrochemical measurements of the OER in alkaline solution to investigate their catalytic performance. We also performed first-principles calculations to examine their thermodynamic phase stability and electronic structures. Both theoretical and experimental results indicated that incorporating $\\geq 20$ wt.% Al into Zn led to thermodynamic phase instability and secondary-phase segregation in Al-rich regions, limiting reaction kinetics and reducing catalytic efficiency. Although the Al content of 5 wt.% into Zn exhibited favorable thermodynamic and electronic characteristics, but its electrochemical performance was inefficient and poor due to inadequate reaction active sites on the surface. In contrast, the 10 wt.% and 15 wt.% Al into Zn showed approximately three- and two-fold increases in anodic exchange current density relative to pure Zn, respectively. Additionally, the anodic overpotential losses ($\\eta\_{0,a}$) measured at a current density of 12 mAcm$^{-2}$ were 0.240 V for Zn$\_{0.9}$Al$\_{0.1}$ and 0.5603 V for Zn$\_{0.85}$Al$\_{0.15}$, significantly lower than that of pure Zn ($\\eta\_{0,a} = 1.086$ V). While Zn$\_{0.9}$Al$\_{0.1}$ and Zn$\_{0.85}$Al$\_{0.15}$ showed similar charge transfer resistance ($R\_{\\rm CT}$), Zn$\_{0.9}$Al$\_{0.1}$ demonstrated superior reaction kinetics and lower $\\eta\_{0,a}$ across all samples tested. Furthermore, the improved kinetics and reduced overpotential of the Zn-Al alloys favorably compare with those of other transition-metal-based catalysts, including Fe-Co-Ni-Mo alloys and Fe-doped CuO.

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## Original sources and implementation

[Original paper](<https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.17904>)

[PDF](<https://arxiv.org/pdf/2603.17904.pdf>)