skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Insights into the Electrochemical Oxygen Evolution Reaction with ab Initio Calculations and Microkinetic Modeling: Beyond the Limiting Potential Volcano

Journal Article · · Journal of Physical Chemistry. C
ORCiD logo [1];  [1];  [2]
  1. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Stanford Univ., CA (United States). SUNCAT Center for Interface Science and Catalysis
  2. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Stanford Univ., CA (United States). SUNCAT Center for Interface Science and Catalysis; Technical Univ. of Denmark, Lyngby (Denmark). Dept. of Physics

Density functional theory calculations are potentially useful for both understanding the activity of experimentally tested catalysts and screening for new catalyst materials. For electrochemical oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts, these analyses are usually performed considering only the thermodynamics of the reaction path, which typically consists of adsorbed OH*, O*, and OOH*. Scaling relationships between the stability of these intermediates lead to a limiting potential volcano whose optimum is constrained by the roughly constant offset between the binding energies of OH* and OOH*. In this work, we evaluate OER kinetics at rutile IrO2, RuO2, RhO2, and PtO2 surfaces by computing reaction barriers with an explicit model of the electrochemical interface. We conclude that the kinetics of proton transfer between oxygen atoms at the surface and in the electrolyte is facile and that O–O bond formation is most likely rate-determining in all cases. Combining these results with a microkinetic model and a scaling relationship for the OOH* formation barrier, we construct a new activity volcano whose optimum is similar to that of the limiting potential volcano for typical current densities. This kinetic volcano is also shown to agree reasonably well with experimental observations. Based on this analysis, we propose a more precise requirement for improving OER catalysts beyond the state of the art: the transition state for OOH* formation must be stabilized as opposed to the fully formed OOH* final state as has been previously presumed.

Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515; SC0008685; DGE-114747; 9455
OSTI ID:
1560627
Journal Information:
Journal of Physical Chemistry. C, Vol. 123, Issue 31; ISSN 1932-7447
Publisher:
American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 90 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (86)

Benchmarking Hydrogen Evolving Reaction and Oxygen Evolving Reaction Electrocatalysts for Solar Water Splitting Devices journal March 2015
Combining theory and experiment in electrocatalysis: Insights into materials design journal January 2017
A Strongly Coupled Graphene and FeNi Double Hydroxide Hybrid as an Excellent Electrocatalyst for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction journal June 2014
Homogeneously dispersed multimetal oxygen-evolving catalysts journal March 2016
Origin of the Overpotential for Oxygen Reduction at a Fuel-Cell Cathode journal November 2004
Analysis of electrocatalytic reaction schemes: distinction between rate-determining and potential-determining steps journal October 2012
Kinetics of Electrocatalytic Reactions from First-Principles: A Critical Comparison with the Ab Initio Thermodynamics Approach journal April 2017
Mechanism and Tafel Lines of Electro-Oxidation of Water to Oxygen on RuO 2 (110) journal December 2010
Theoretical Elucidation of the Competitive Electro-oxidation Mechanisms of Formic Acid on Pt(111) journal December 2010
Theoretical Considerations on the Electroreduction of CO to C 2 Species on Cu(100) Electrodes journal June 2013
Selectivity of CO 2 Reduction on Copper Electrodes: The Role of the Kinetics of Elementary Steps journal January 2013
Structure Sensitivity of the Oxygen Evolution Reaction Catalyzed by Cobalt(II,III) Oxide journal November 2015
Full Kinetics from First Principles of the Chlorine Evolution Reaction over a RuO 2 (110) Model Electrode journal May 2016
The Reaction Mechanism with Free Energy Barriers at Constant Potentials for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction at the IrO 2 (110) Surface journal December 2016
Modeling the Electrochemical Hydrogen Oxidation and Evolution Reactions on the Basis of Density Functional Theory Calculations journal October 2010
Unifying Kinetic and Thermodynamic Analysis of 2 e and 4 e Reduction of Oxygen on Metal Surfaces journal March 2014
Understanding trends in electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction rates journal May 2017
Theoretical Investigations of the Electrochemical Reduction of CO on Single Metal Atoms Embedded in Graphene journal November 2017
Quantum chemistry of the oxygen evolution reaction on cobalt( ii , iii ) oxide – implications for designing the optimal catalyst journal January 2016
Kinetics-Based Computational Catalyst Design Strategy for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction on Transition-Metal Oxide Surfaces journal October 2018
A Universal Approach To Determine the Free Energy Diagram of an Electrocatalytic Reaction journal January 2018
Identification of Possible Pathways for C–C Bond Formation during Electrochemical Reduction of CO 2 : New Theoretical Insights from an Improved Electrochemical Model journal April 2016
A simple method to approximate electrode potential-dependent activation energies using density functional theory journal June 2017
Electrolysis of water on oxide surfaces journal September 2007
Universality in Oxygen Evolution Electrocatalysis on Oxide Surfaces journal March 2011
Ligand Effects and Their Impact on Electrocatalytic Processes Exemplified with the Oxygen Evolution Reaction (OER) on RuO 2 (110) journal February 2015
A New Type of Scaling Relations to Assess the Accuracy of Computational Predictions of Catalytic Activities Applied to the Oxygen Evolution Reaction journal March 2017
Beyond the volcano limitations in electrocatalysis – oxygen evolution reaction journal January 2014
Improving Oxygen Electrochemistry through Nanoscopic Confinement journal January 2015
Materials for solar fuels and chemicals journal December 2016
Does the breaking of adsorption-energy scaling relations guarantee enhanced electrocatalysis? journal March 2018
Outlining the Scaling-Based and Scaling-Free Optimization of Electrocatalysts journal March 2019
QUANTUM ESPRESSO: a modular and open-source software project for quantum simulations of materials journal September 2009
An object-oriented scripting interface to a legacy electronic structure code journal January 2002
Improved adsorption energetics within density-functional theory using revised Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof functionals journal March 1999
A Theoretical Investigation into the Role of Surface Defects for Oxygen Evolution on RuO 2 journal August 2017
Pseudopotentials for high-throughput DFT calculations journal January 2014
Pseudopotentials periodic table: From H to Pu journal December 2014
Bandstructure meets many-body theory: the LDA+DMFT method journal January 2008
A climbing image nudged elastic band method for finding saddle points and minimum energy paths journal December 2000
Solvation Effects for Oxygen Evolution Reaction Catalysis on IrO 2 (110) journal May 2017
"Special points for Brillouin-zone integrations"—a reply journal August 1977
The absolute electrode potential: an explanatory note (Recommendations 1986) journal January 1986
Nature of Lone-Pair–Surface Bonds and Their Scaling Relations journal June 2018
The oxygen reduction reaction mechanism on Pt(111) from density functional theory calculations journal November 2010
First-Principles Free-Energy Barriers for Photoelectrochemical Surface Reactions: Proton Abstraction at TiO 2 ( 110 ) journal December 2016
Modeling the electrified solid–liquid interface journal November 2008
Electrochemical Barriers Made Simple journal June 2015
Potential Dependence of Electrochemical Barriers from ab Initio Calculations journal April 2016
Surface Pourbaix diagrams and oxygen reduction activity of Pt, Ag and Ni(111) surfaces studied by DFT journal January 2008
Electrochemical chlorine evolution at rutile oxide (110) surfaces journal January 2010
Chlorine Evolution Reaction on RuO2(110): Ab initio Atomistic Thermodynamics Study - Pourbaix Diagrams journal February 2014
Synergistic Oxygen Evolving Activity of a TiO 2 -Rich Reconstructed SrTiO 3 (001) Surface journal February 2015
Cover Picture: Computationally Probing the Performance of Hybrid, Heterogeneous, and Homogeneous Iridium-Based Catalysts for Water Oxidation (ChemCatChem 10/2016) journal May 2016
Atomic-Scale Analysis of the RuO 2 /Water Interface under Electrochemical Conditions journal April 2016
Thermodynamic explanation of the universal correlation between oxygen evolution activity and corrosion of oxide catalysts journal July 2015
Real-Time Observation of Surface Bond Breaking with an X-ray Laser journal March 2013
Characterization of Various Oxygen Species on an Oxide Surface:  RuO 2 (110) journal May 2001
Thermal desorption of gases journal July 1962
The Brønsted–Evans–Polanyi relation and the volcano curve in heterogeneous catalysis journal May 2004
Electrode Kinetics of Oxygen Evolution and Dissolution on Rh, Ir, and Pt-Rh Alloy Electrodes journal January 1966
Mechanism of oxygen evolution on perovskites journal July 1983
Surface Phase Diagram and Oxygen Coupling Kinetics on Flat and Stepped Pt Surfaces under Electrochemical Potentials journal May 2009
A Fundamental Relationship between Reaction Mechanism and Stability in Metal Oxide Catalysts for Oxygen Evolution journal January 2016
Role of Lattice Oxygen Participation in Understanding Trends in the Oxygen Evolution Reaction on Perovskites journal April 2018
Activating lattice oxygen redox reactions in metal oxides to catalyse oxygen evolution journal January 2017
Generalized Gradient Approximation Made Simple journal October 1996
Tafel Kinetics of Electrocatalytic Reactions: From Experiment to First-Principles journal November 2014
Orientation-Dependent Oxygen Evolution Activities of Rutile IrO 2 and RuO 2 journal April 2014
Insight on Tafel slopes from a microkinetic analysis of aqueous electrocatalysis for energy conversion journal September 2015
Electrochemical and X-ray scattering study of well defined RuO2 single crystal surfaces journal May 2002
Influence of Surface Adsorption on the Oxygen Evolution Reaction on IrO 2 (110) journal February 2017
Measurements of Oxygen Electroadsorption Energies and Oxygen Evolution Reaction on RuO 2 (110): A Discussion of the Sabatier Principle and Its Role in Electrocatalysis journal November 2018
An abinitio study of electrochemical vs. electromechanical properties: the case of CO adsorbed on a Pt(111) surface journal January 2011
Electric Field Effects in Electrochemical CO 2 Reduction journal September 2016
Challenges in Modeling Electrochemical Reaction Energetics with Polarizable Continuum Models journal November 2018
Avoid the quasi-equilibrium assumption when evaluating the electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction mechanism by Tafel slope analysis journal December 2015
Electrochemical Properties of PbO[sub 2] and the Anodic Corrosion of Lead and Lead Alloys journal January 1958
The Oxygen-Evolution Reaction at Gold Anodes journal January 1959
Electrochemical water splitting by gold: evidence for an oxide decomposition mechanism journal January 2013
Electrocatalytic oxygen evolution on reactively sputtered electrochromic iridium oxide films journal November 1979
Single crystals as model electrocatalysts journal October 1986
Enhancing Activity for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction: The Beneficial Interaction of Gold with Manganese and Cobalt Oxides journal November 2014
Electronic Origin and Kinetic Feasibility of the Lattice Oxygen Participation During the Oxygen Evolution Reaction on Perovskites journal March 2018
VESTA 3 for three-dimensional visualization of crystal, volumetric and morphology data journal October 2011
Matplotlib: A 2D Graphics Environment journal January 2007

Cited By (3)

Interpreting Tafel behavior of consecutive electrochemical reactions through combined thermodynamic and steady state microkinetic approaches journal January 2020
Antiperovskite Intermetallic Nanoparticles for Enhanced Oxygen Reduction journal December 2019
Antiperovskite Intermetallic Nanoparticles for Enhanced Oxygen Reduction journal January 2020

Figures / Tables (14)