Recent Progress on Structurally Ordered Materials for Electrocatalysis

Abstract

Tuning material properties by modulation of the arrangement of atoms is a fundamental and effective strategy in materials science. Structurally long‐range ordered materials are increasingly finding utility for electrocatalytic applications. Such ordered structures can achieve unique functions that increase the electrocatalytic activity compared to corresponding electrocatalysts with a disordered structure. Effective strategies for designing high‐performance electrocatalysts based on structurally ordered materials are presented. This review also summarizes the recent progress on structurally ordered materials as efficient electrocatalysts and highlights the applications in several representative electrochemical reactions, such as, the oxygen evolution reaction, oxygen reduction reaction, and hydrogen evolution reaction. The structural features of the atomic long‐range ordered framework and superior electrochemical performance are demonstrated by advanced characterization techniques (structural identification) and electrochemical measurements (performance evaluations), respectively. Special attention is paid to the establishment of a structure‐activity relationship to highlight the advantages of the ordered structure. Finally, the remaining challenges and emerging opportunities in these related materials are proposed.

New Undisputed Evidence and Strategy for Enhanced Lattice‐Oxygen Participation of Perovskite Electrocatalyst through Cation Deficiency Manipulation

“…The OER occurs during the charging process of a rechargeable Zn-air battery and is also the anodic half-reaction of a water electrolyzer, which holds key to achieving high efficiencies for these energy devices. [2][3][4][5] Inspired by the outstanding OER activity of the optimized LaSr1.90 sample as discussed in previous investigations, we further evaluated its practical applications in rechargeable Zn-air batteries and water electrolyzers using home-made test models schematically illustrated in Figure 5a,d. To achieve better performance in these energy devices, the pristine LaSr1.90 was subjected to ball-milling to increase the number of active sites exposed as an effort to improve its electrode activity.…”

“…[1] For instance, the OER dominates largely the overall efficiency of many electrochemical energy conversion devices such as rechargeable metal-air batteries and water electrolyzers. [2][3][4][5] However, due to its complex four-electron transfer, the OER process suffers from intrinsically poor kinetics, which often requires a considerable overpotential to realize moderate reaction rates, thus limiting the overall efficiency of the related energy devices. [1][2][3][4][5] To lower this kinetic barrier, electrocatalysts containing noble metals, like iridium oxide (IrO 2 ) and ruthenium oxide (RuO 2 ), are often employed, [6] which show one of the best OER performances, but their larger-scale deployment is hindered by their low abundance and high cost.…”

“…[2][3][4][5] However, due to its complex four-electron transfer, the OER process suffers from intrinsically poor kinetics, which often requires a considerable overpotential to realize moderate reaction rates, thus limiting the overall efficiency of the related energy devices. [1][2][3][4][5] To lower this kinetic barrier, electrocatalysts containing noble metals, like iridium oxide (IrO 2 ) and ruthenium oxide (RuO 2 ), are often employed, [6] which show one of the best OER performances, but their larger-scale deployment is hindered by their low abundance and high cost. Therefore, tremendous efforts have been made to develop non-noble metal-based alternatives that are competitively efficient.…”

A’–B Intersite Cooperation-Enhanced Water Splitting in Quadruple Perovskite Oxide CaCu3Ir4O12

“…All the results illustrate that the peculiar crystal and electronic structures of CaCu 3 Ir 4 O 12 are optimized to effectively accelerate the OER kinetics. Figure e summarizes the overpotential η OER at 10 mA·cm –2 among recently reported excellent OER catalysts in alkaline media. ,− CaCu 3 Ir 4 O 12 presents an ultralow overpotential of 252 mV at 10 mA·cm –2 , exhibiting the highest performance among Ir-based oxide catalysts. − ,− …”

Nano-Sized Double Perovskite Oxide as Bifunctional Oxygen Electrocatalysts

“…Among them, perovskite oxide, especially double perovskite oxide, has been extensively studied due to their earth-abundant nature and intrinsically high catalytic activity [9][10][11]. The flexible compositional structure of perovskite oxide makes its wide potential to be tuned as superior catalysts [12][13][14][15].…”