Electrolytic processes involving water are of considerable importance commercially. Such processes involve the electrodeposition of metals, electrochemical synthesis procedures, electrochemical loading of electrodes for batteries, etc. A particularly important industrial process involving the electrolysis of water is the production of hydrogen gas. Hydrogen gas is an excellent source of energy and has many other uses in chemical technology and industry.
It is highly desirable to reduce the cost of processes involving the oxidation of water including hydrogen production. Most of this cost is involved with the consumption of electrical energy. Reduction of cell voltage at a given current density reduces the amount of electrical energy needed to produce a given amount of hydrogen gas.
Much of the cell voltage in water electrolysis originates in the overpotential at the electrodes, especially the anode. Nickel and its alloys are the preferred materials for electrodes, especially anodes in the electrolysis of water in alkaline solutions due to their high corrosion resistance at anodic potentials in aqueous alkaline solutions and their low cost. Many of the characteristics of nickel anodes in the electrolysis of water are described in a publication entitled, "Ni(OH).sub.2 -Impregnated Anodes for Alkaline Water Electrolysis" by D. E. Hall; Journal of the Electrochemical Society, 130, 317 (1983). Of particular interest is the disclosure that nickel hydroxide produced by electrochemical precipitation methods on the nickel anode reduces the oxygen evolution overvoltage. However, even lower overvoltages for either or both electrodes are highly desirable particularly for efficient and low-cost production of hydrogen. Much information on the production of hydrogen by water electrolysis is contained in a book entitled, Hydrogen: Its Technology and Implications-Volume 1: Production Technology, K. E. Cox and K. D. Williamson, Jr. editors, CRC Press, Inc., Boca Raton, Fla.