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Title: Design of template-stabilized active and earth-abundant oxygen evolution catalysts in acid

Journal Article · · Chemical Science
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1039/C7SC01239J· OSTI ID:1599222

Oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts that are earth-abundant and are active and stable in acid are unknown. Active catalysts derived from Co and Ni oxides dissolve at low pH, whereas acid stable systems such as Mn oxides (MnOx) display poor OER activity. We now demonstrate a rational approach for the design of earth-abundant catalysts that are stable and active in acid by treating activity and stability as decoupled elements of mixed metal oxides. Manganese serves as a stabilizing structural element for catalytically active Co centers in CoMnOx films. In acidic solutions (pH 2.5), CoMnOx exhibits the OER activity of electrodeposited Co oxide (CoOx) with a Tafel slope of 70–80 mV per decade while also retaining the long-term acid stability of MnOx films for OER at 0.1 mA cm-2. Driving OER at greater current densities in this system is not viable because at high anodic potentials, Mn oxides convert to and dissolve as permanganate. However, by exploiting the decoupled design of the catalyst, the stabilizing structural element may be optimized independently of the Co active sites. By screening potential–pH diagrams, we replaced Mn with Pb to prepare CoFePbOx films that maintained the high OER activity of CoOx at pH 2.5 while exhibiting long-term acid stability at higher current densities (at 1 mA cm-2 for over 50 h at pH 2.0). Under these acidic conditions, CoFePbOx exhibits OER activity that approaches noble metal oxides, thus establishing the viability of decoupling functionality in mixed metal catalysts for designing active, acid-stable, and earth-abundant OER catalysts.

Research Organization:
Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences Division; National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0017619; ECS-0335765
OSTI ID:
1599222
Journal Information:
Chemical Science, Vol. 8, Issue 7; ISSN 2041-6520
Publisher:
Royal Society of ChemistryCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 152 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Recent Progress on Multimetal Oxide Catalysts for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction journal January 2018
FeN 4 Sites Embedded into Carbon Nanofiber Integrated with Electrochemically Exfoliated Graphene for Oxygen Evolution in Acidic Medium journal August 2018
Stable Potential Windows for Long‐Term Electrocatalysis by Manganese Oxides Under Acidic Conditions journal April 2019
Recent Progress in Decoupled H 2 and O 2 Production from Electrolytic Water Splitting journal February 2019
Solar‐Driven Production of Hydrogen Peroxide from Water and Dioxygen journal February 2018
Electrolysis of Natural Waters Contaminated with Transition-Metal Ions: Identification of A Metastable FePb-Based Oxygen-Evolution Catalyst Operating in Weakly Acidic Solutions journal April 2018
Nitrogen-doped tungsten carbide nanoarray as an efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst for water splitting in acid journal March 2018
Intrinsically stable in situ generated electrocatalyst for long-term oxidation of acidic water at up to 80 °C journal May 2019
Nickel oxide–polypyrrole nanocomposite electrode materials for electrocatalytic water oxidation journal January 2018
Trends in activity for the oxygen evolution reaction on transition metal (M = Fe, Co, Ni) phosphide pre-catalysts journal January 2018
Quasi-single-crystalline CoO hexagrams with abundant defects for highly efficient electrocatalytic water oxidation journal January 2018
Cobalt-doped hematite thin films for electrocatalytic water oxidation in highly acidic media journal January 2019
Photoelectrochemical cell for P–H/C–H cross-coupling with hydrogen evolution journal January 2019
Fabricating Cu, Cu 2 O and hybrid Cu-Cu 2 O nanoparticles in carbon matrix and exploring catalytic activity of oxygen and hydrogen evolution and green A 3 -coupling reaction journal November 2018
Electrochemical characterization of manganese oxides as a water oxidation catalyst in proton exchange membrane electrolysers journal May 2019
FeNxC Based Catalysts Prepared by the Calcination of Iron-Ethylenediamine@Polyaniline as the Cathode-Catalyst of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell journal August 2019
Design of Multi‐Metallic‐Based Electrocatalysts for Enhanced Water Oxidation journal May 2019
Efficient oxygen evolution electrocatalysis in acid by a perovskite with face-sharing IrO6 octahedral dimers journal December 2018
Stable Potential Windows for Long‐Term Electrocatalysis by Manganese Oxides Under Acidic Conditions journal March 2019
Noble-Metal-Free Electrocatalysts for Oxygen Evolution journal November 2018

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