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In this study, we report elaboration of a thin film of CoOxon a low carbon unalloyed steel substrate by electrochemical route and the study of its electrocatalytic performances with respect to the evolution reaction of oxygen (OER) in NaOH medium. The elaborated deposits were well-characterized using X-ray diffraction. Kinetic and thermodynamic parameters such as exchange current density, Tafel slope, reaction order with respect to OH– ions and apparent activation energy were studied. The CoOxdisplays satisfactory OER performance in an alkaline medium, with a low overvoltage of 362 mV at 10 mA/cm2and a Tafel slope of 81 mV/dec at 293 K. The apparent kinetic activation energy (= 29.79 kJ/mol) was similar to those obtained for the reported catalytic electrode materials. The O2gas obtained on the cobalt oxide electrode was 2.865 mmol/s.cm2, which is 28 times higher than that obtained for the platinum electrode (0.102 mmol/s.cm2). Chronoamperometry demonstrates a better electrochemical stability under a polarization potential of 2 V in 1 M NaOH for nearly 25 h. The low cost, the high OER performance, as well as the good stability of the CoOx electrode make it a promising candidate for the industrial-scale water electrolysis.

This study has been conducted to investigate the effects of plastic deformation of an AA2024 aluminium alloy by cold rolling to 25%, 50% and 75% and then heat-treating and naturally ageing for 20 days to T4 on the microstructure and the electrochemical behavior. To characterize the microstructural modifications different techniques have been applied such as X-ray Diffraction (XRD) to demonstrate the intermetallic phases formed, Optical Microscopy (OM) and Scanning Electronic Microscopy (SEM) to evaluate their microstructures and grain size. Moreover, the surface topography has been measured to establish the roughness effect on the mechanical response when subjected to tensile, fatigue and micro-indentation tests. The corrosion behaviour was evaluated by Potentiodynamic Polarization Scanning, Cyclic Voltammetry (CV) and Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS). The results revealed that cold-rolled samples with 50% plastic deformation show a smoother topography and exhibit the best compromise between mechanical and corrosion resistance.