The development of support structures for electrocatalysts has received a great deal of attention over the last decade, with carbon structures (i.e. nanostructures, Vulcan carbon (VC)) having been studied extensively. Carbon support structures increase the surface area, stability and activity of electrocatalysts in most cases, and can be used to overcome the delamination of thin films. In an attempt to (i) obtain surface structures and areas on SiO₂ wafer pads, for combinatorial high-throughput sputtering and screening, that are comparable to glassy carbon (GC), (ii) eliminate delamination of the electrocatalyst and (iii) increase activity and stability, this study focused on VC:Nafion support preparation techniques. Four VC inks were prepared and used as carbon support on GC electrode inserts to analyse their effect on the activity of sputtered Ni thin films (40 nm) towards the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in alkaline media. Linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) and chronopotentiometry (CP) were employed to compare the catalytic activity and stability of these sputtered Ni thin films on the various VC supports. Results suggest that similar activity compared with IrO₂ and RuO₂ could be achieved by sputtered Ni on VC:Nafion support, indicating improved Ni utilisation as well as improved short-term stability of the Ni thin films. These results validate the use of VC:Nafion support as substrate for sputtered electrocatalysts.

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在过去的十年中，用于电催化剂的载体结构的发展受到了广泛的关注，其中碳结构（即纳米结构，Vulcan碳（VC））已经得到了广泛的研究。碳载体结构在大多数情况下会增加电催化剂的表面积，稳定性和活性，并可用于克服薄膜的分层。试图（i）在SiO ₂上获得表面结构和面积与玻璃碳（GC）相当的用于组合式高通量溅射和筛选的硅片垫，（ii）消除了电催化剂的分层，并（iii）提高了活性和稳定性，这项研究的重点是VC：Nafion载体制备技术。制备了四种VC墨水，并将其用作GC电极插件上的碳载体，以分析它们对溅射的Ni薄膜（40 nm）对碱性介质中的氧释放反应（OER）的活性的影响。使用线性扫描伏安法（LSV）和计时电位法（CP）来比较这些溅射Ni薄膜在各种VC载体上的催化活性和稳定性。结果表明，与IrO ₂和RuO ₂相比具有相似的活性可以通过在VC：Nafion载体上溅射Ni来实现，这表明Ni利用率得到提高，并且Ni薄膜的短期稳定性得到提高。这些结果证明了将VC：Nafion载体用作溅射电催化剂的底物。

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