Preferential Microstructure Design of Two‐Dimensional Electrocatalysts for Boosted Oxygen Evolution Reaction

Abstract

evolution reaction (OER) has received substantial concerns owing to its crucial role in improving the overall efficiency of water electrolysis to generate clean hydrogen energy. Focused on the optimization of the earth-abundant OER catalysts, plenty of strategies have been developed aimed on enriching the exposed active sites and enhancing the overall charge transport behavior, thus improving the OER performance. In this Concept paper, the structural merits and limits of the two-dimensional (2D) OER catalysts are discussed in detail. Based on the understandings of the structural influences on the OER catalysis, recent progresses on preferential microstructure design of the 2D OER catalysts are summarized, including designing highly porous single-crystalline catalysts, amorphous/ partially amorphous catalysts, defective catalysts and hierarchical catalysts. This work may provide a useful guidance for future designing of the advanced catalysts for OER.

Rapid and Scalable Synthesis of Prussian Blue Analogue Nanocubes for Electrocatalytic Water Oxidation†

“…The nanosize of the PBA‐based nanocubes could offer abundant surface sites for potential pre‐oxidation reaction and the subsequent electro‐oxidation reaction, which may benefit the electrocatalytic water oxidation. [ 56 ] The high‐resolution TEM (HRTEM) image of the CoCo PBA nanocubes was displayed in Figure 3E. As can be seen, homogeneous lattice fringes with interplanar spacing of 3.60 Å can be observed, which is consistent with the (220) facets of the CoCo PBA structure, further confirming the high phase purity of the CoCo PBA nanocubes.…”

“…[ 45‐55 ] In this case, fabricating pre‐catalysts with boosted pre‐oxidation process via microstructural design is an effective strategy for improving the OER performance. [ 56 ]…”

Recent Progress on Two-Dimensional Materials

“…Some TMCs materials can maintain stability during the OER process without damage. Others could be oxidized into the corresponding metal oxides/hydroxides under the strong oxidizing environments, forming an in situ heterostructure 317,1066,1067 . Modulate the spin states in uniquely exposed active planes can be an effective way for promoting the OER performance.…”

Recent advances in the pre-oxidation process in electrocatalytic urea oxidation reactions

“…To date, only limited enrichment of the local high-valence species could be achieved via designing defects, amorphous structures or conducting elemental doping with optimal electronic structures. 9,10,22,49,56,[58][59][60][61][62] Therefore, promoting the pre-oxidation reaction with in situ generation of the catalytically active high-valence species is a more promising pathway to improving the UOR activity, which has received substantial attention (Fig. 1B).…”

“…In another pathway, the electrode coupling between the cathodic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) could lead to efficient production of clean hydrogen. [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] However, limited by the College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Key Laboratory of Molecular and Nano Probes (Ministry of Education), Collaborative Innovation Center of Functionalized Probes for Chemical Imaging in Universities of Shandong, Institute of Molecular and Nano Science, Shandong Normal University, Jinan, Shandong, 250014, P. R. China. E-mail: leifc@sdnu.edu.cn, xiejf@sdnu.edu.cn…”