Active Sites Regulation for High-Performance Oxygen Evolution Reaction Electrocatalysts

Abstract

Electrochemical water splitting to produce molecular hydrogen and oxygen provides a promising strategy engineering for scalable hydrogen production with high purity. Unfortunately, the sluggish kinetics of oxygen evolution reactions (OER) due to the interdependence multiple steps procedure require high overpotential to achieve appreciable catalytic current density, resulting in relatively low energy conversion efficiencies. Therefore, development of high-performance OER electrocatalysts is vital to drive the commercial application of water splitting. This review highlights current progress of representative catalyst electrocatalysts in the past decade. Active site regulation for excellent OER performance of precious metal single atoms catalyst, high-entropy alloy, transition metals oxides, transition metal chalcogenide are emphasized. And a more in-depth exploration of OER reaction mechanism by in situ technique and DFT results will be conducted. This review can provide the basis for the development and modification of OER electrocatalysts.

Recent advances in amorphous electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction

“…Over the past few years, substantial efforts have been devoted to enhancing OER activities of the electrocatalysts, for example, the introduction of hetero atoms into the lattice or on the surface to enhance the intrinsic kinetic activity ( Ramesh et al, 2018 ; Youk et al, 2019 ), and structural engineering of the electrocatalysts to increase the surface area and/or mass transport property ( Chen et al, 2018 ). Among them, the development of amorphous-structured OER electrocatalysts is considered a promising strategy for enhancing the activity; it is based on that the surface of crystalline materials is electrocatalytically activated while becoming amorphous during OER ( Tang et al, 2022 ).…”

Hollow FeNi@NCG Materials Prepared with a Double-template Strategy as Highly Efficient Catalysts for Rechargeable Zn-air Batteries

“…20,32 Besides, the pure NCG-700 catalyst displays the poorest OER performance, confirming that metal nanoparticles should be one type of OER active sites. 55 For further understanding the role of GO, the Fe 1 Ni 1 @NC catalyst synthesized by calcining the pure Fe 1 Ni 1 -MOF template was also employed as contrast. Clearly, the Fe 1 Ni 1 @NC catalyst is proved to have an inferior OER performance in comparison with the Fe 1 Ni 1 @NCG-700 catalyst, and the overpotential of Fe 1 Ni 1 @NC (258 mV) is much higher than the optimal Fe 1 Ni 1 @NCG-700 composites (Figs.…”

High-Performance NiO/GCN Nanohybrids Synthesized under Different Thermal Conditions for Efficient Electrocatalytic Oxygen Evolution Reaction

“…Despite their effectiveness, limited availability, high cost and subpar stability constrain their widespread application. 9 In recent investigations, transition metal oxides have gained substantial attention owing to their innate catalytic process and cost-effectiveness. 10 Nevertheless, their inadequate conductivity and limited area of the surface present a dual challenge impeding ionic transport within the catalyst material and obstructing the electrolyte's access to active sites on the catalyst surface.…”

“…Noble metal-based materials such as RuO 2 and IrO 2 stand out as premier catalysts for the OER due to their exceptional activity. Despite their effectiveness, limited availability, high cost and subpar stability constrain their widespread application . In recent investigations, transition metal oxides have gained substantial attention owing to their innate catalytic process and cost-effectiveness .…”