The growing need to store increasing amounts of renewable energy has recently triggered substantial R&D efforts towards efficient and stable water electrolysis technologies. The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) occurring at the electrolyser anode is central to the development of a clean, reliable and emission-free hydrogen economy. The development of robust and highly active anode materials for OER is therefore a great challenge and has been the main focus of research. Among potential candidates, perovskites have emerged as promising OER electrocatalysts. In this study, by combining a scalable cutting-edge synthesis method with time-resolved X-ray absorption spectroscopy measurements, we were able to capture the dynamic local electronic and geometric structure during realistic operando conditions for highly active OER perovskite nanocatalysts. BaSrCoFeO as nano-powder displays unique features that allow a dynamic self-reconstruction of the material's surface during OER, that is, the growth of a self-assembled metal oxy(hydroxide) active layer. Therefore, besides showing outstanding performance at both the laboratory and industrial scale, we provide a fundamental understanding of the operando OER mechanism for highly active perovskite catalysts. This understanding significantly differs from design principles based on ex situ characterization techniques.

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Perovskite oxides have been at the forefront among catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in alkaline media offering a higher degree of freedom in cation arrangement. Several of highly OER active Co-based perovskites have been known to show extraordinary activities and stabilities when the B-site is partially occupied by Fe. At the current stage, the role of Fe in enhancing the OER activity and stability is still unclear. In order to elucidate the roles of Co and Fe in the OER mechanism of cubic perovskites, two prospective perovskite oxides-La0.2Sr0.8Co1-xFexO3-δ and Ba0.5Sr0.5Co1-xFexO3δ with x = 0 and 0.2-were prepared by flame spray synthesis as nanoparticles. This study highlights the importance of Fe in order to achieve high OER activity and stability by drawing relations between their physicochemical and electrochemical properties. Ex situ and operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) was used to study the local electronic and geometric structure under oxygen evolving conditions. In parallel, density function theory computational studies were conducted to provide theoretical insights into our findings. Our findings show that the incorporation of Fe into Co-based perovskite oxides alters intrinsic properties rendering efficient OER activity and prolonged stability.

The correlation between ex situ electronic conductivity, oxygen vacancy content, flat-band potential (Efb), and the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity for a wide range of perovskite compositions [La1-xSrxCoO3−δ series (with x = 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8), LaMO3−δ series (M = Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni), Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.8Fe0.2O3−δ (BSCF), and PrBaCo2O6−δ (PBCO)] are investigated experimentally and theoretically. It is found that all of these parameters can affect the OER activity; however, none of them alone play a crucial role in determining the electrocatalytic activity. The correlation of one single physicochemical property with the OER activity always presents deviation points, indicating that a limitation does exist for such 2-dimensional correlations. Nevertheless, these deviations can be explained considering other physicochemical properties and their correlation with the OER activity. Hence, this work aims in simultaneously linking the OER activity with several physicochemical materials properties. The concept of the OER/multidescriptor relationship represents a significant advancement in the search and design of highly active oxygen evolution catalysts, in the quest for efficient anodes in water electrolyzers.

Extensive investigations in understanding the functional mechanisms of metal oxides behind oxygen evolution have been carried out since an electrolyzer has demonstrated promising possibilities as a device to produce hydrogen for electrochemical energy conversion systems. In particular, perovskite oxides are reputable for high activity toward the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Here, we revisited the list of active perovskite oxides constructed based on theoretical oxygen binding energies of reaction intermediates to the catalyst surface. From this list, Ru-based perovskites, i.e. SrRuO 3 and LaRuO 3 , have been predicted as active perovskites to exhibit a particularly high OER activity. We report on the stability of nanoscaled SrRuO 3 perovskite prepared by a simple and scalable flame synthesis method. Attempts to obtain LaRuO 3 were made; however, its DFT calculated phase diagram suggests that its perovskite phase is not thermodynamically stable, which supports our experimental results such that only a mixture of different La−Ru−O phases has been obtained. Nanoscaled SrRuO 3 is evaluated for its electrochemical activity with a particular emphasis pointed toward stability in both alkaline and acidic media. Through conjoining electrochemical methods, operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), and theoretical calculations, we show that SrRuO 3 exhibits trivial activity toward OER that decreases promptly. The loss in activity is rationalized through DFT based computations, which corroboratively suggest the poor chemical stability of both selected perovskites. Regardless of the predicted theoretical OER activity, the intrinsic instability strongly suggests that Sr-and La-based ruthenium oxides are not viable catalysts for OER in aqueous media. This further suggests that their activities are independent of their binding energies between intermediates and catalyst surface but rather closely associated with material dissolution. We highlight that understanding the origin of stability under a real operating environment is absolutely essential for the design of a sustainable electrocatalyst with optimal balance between activity and stability.