Industrially profitable water splitting is one of the great challenges in the development of a viable and sustainable hydrogen economy. Alkaline electrolysers using Earth-abundant catalysts remain the most economically viable route to electrolytic hydrogen, but improved efficiency is desirable. Recently, electron spin polarization was described as a potential way to improve water-splitting catalysis. Here, we report the significant enhancement of alkaline water electrolysis when a moderate magnetic field (≤450 mT) is applied to the anode. Current density increments above 100% (over 100 mA cm⁻²) were found for highly magnetic electrocatalysts, such as the mixed oxide NiZnFe₄O_x. Magnetic enhancement works even for decorated Ni–foam electrodes with very high current densities, improving their intrinsic activity by about 40% to reach over 1 A cm⁻² at low overpotentials. Thanks to its simplicity, our discovery opens opportunities for implementing magnetic enhancement in water splitting.

Water splitting is a promising approach to the efficient and cost-effective production of renewable fuels, but water oxidation remains a bottleneck in its technological development because it largely relies on noble-metal catalysts. Although inexpensive transition-metal oxides are competitive water oxidation catalysts in alkaline media, they cannot compete with noble metals in acidic media, in which hydrogen production is easier and faster. Here, we report a water oxidation catalyst based on earth-abundant metals that performs well in acidic conditions. Specifically, we report the enhanced catalytic activity of insoluble salts of polyoxometalates with caesium or barium counter-cations for oxygen evolution. In particular, the barium salt of a cobalt-phosphotungstate polyanion outperforms the state-of-the-art IrO₂ catalyst even at pH < 1, with an overpotential of 189 mV at 1 mA cm^–2. In addition, we find that a carbon-paste conducting support with a hydrocarbon binder can improve the stability of metal-oxide catalysts in acidic media by providing a hydrophobic environment.