Title: Nanovoid Incorporated Ir_xCu Metallic Aerogels for Oxygen Evolution Reaction Catalysis

Abstract

Ir-based nanomaterials are regarded as the state-of-the-art cathode electrocatalysts in proton exchange membrane water electrolyzers (PEMWEs). Engineering the morphology of Ir-based three-dimensional architectures as electrocatalysts toward oxygen evolution reaction (OER) has been rarely studied. Here in this paper, we reported the gelation of Ir_xCu metallic hydrogels self-assembled with ultra-fine and nanovoids incorporated building blocks for enhancing the electrocatalytic performance toward OER. The composition-optimized Ir₃Cu metallic aerogels exhibited improved catalytic activity and durability toward OER. The meso-sized voids generated through the in situ galvanic replacement reaction and the macro-sized porous systems make a great contribution to the increased number of active sites. First principle calculations revealed the intrinsic optimized binding energy of Ir by alloying with Cu. The best catalytic performance necessities the balance of the adsorption and desorption energy. Lastly, the well-defined morphology and enhanced OER electrochemical performances of nanovoid incorporated Ir_xCu metallic aerogels hold a great promise in further application in PEMWEs.

Authors:

Shi, Qiurong ^[1]; Zhu, Chengzhou  ^[2];

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Zhu, Chengzhou"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0003-0679-7965"

Zhong, Hong ^[1]; Su, Dong  ^[3];

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Su, Dong"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-1921-6683"

Li, Na ^[3]; Engelhard, Mark H.  ^[4];

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Engelhard, Mark H."
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-5543-0812"

Xia, Haibing  ^[5];

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Xia, Haibing"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0003-2262-7958"

Zhang, Qiang  ^[6];

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Zhang, Qiang"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0001-7327-9047"

Feng, Shuo ^[1]; Beckman, Scott P. ^[1]; Du, Dan  ^[2];

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Du, Dan"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0003-1952-4042"

Lin, Yuehe  ^[1]

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Lin, Yuehe"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0003-3791-7587"

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. Washington State Univ., Pullman, WA (United States). School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering
2. Washington State Univ., Pullman, WA (United States). School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering; Central China Normal University, Wuhan (China). Key Laboratory of Pesticide and Chemical Biology, Ministry of Education of the PR China and College of Chemistry
3. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States). Center for Functional Nanomaterials
4. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States). Environmental Molecular Sciences Lab. (EMSL)
5. Shandong Univ., Jinan (China). Key Institute of Crystal Materials
6. Washington State Univ., Pullman, WA (United States). Department of Chemistry

Publication Date:

Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 2018

Research Org.:

Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)

OSTI Identifier:

1478480

Report Number(s):

BNL-209320-2018-JAAM
Journal ID: ISSN 2380-8195

Grant/Contract Number:  

SC0012704

Resource Type:

Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

ACS Energy Letters

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Volume: 3; Journal Issue: 9; Journal ID: ISSN 2380-8195

Publisher:

American Chemical Society (ACS)

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY; 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; Nanovoid; IrxCu; Metallic Aerogels; Oxygen Evolution Reaction; Catalysis