Non-iridium-based electrocatalyst for durable acidic oxygen evolution reaction in proton exchange membrane water electrolysis

Iridium-based electrocatalysts remain the only practical anode catalysts for proton exchange membrane (PEM) water electrolysis, due to their excellent stability under acidic oxygen evolution reaction (OER), but are greatly limited by their high cost and low reserves. Here, we report a nickel-stabili...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature materials Vol. 22; no. 1; pp. 100 - 108
Main Authors: Wu, Zhen-Yu, Chen, Feng-Yang, Li, Boyang, Yu, Shen-Wei, Finfrock, Y Zou, Meira, Debora Motta, Yan, Qiang-Qiang, Zhu, Peng, Chen, Ming-Xi, Song, Tian-Wei, Yin, Zhouyang, Liang, Hai-Wei, Zhang, Sen, Wang, Guofeng, Wang, Haotian
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: England Nature Publishing Group 01.01.2023
Subjects:
Acids
Adsorbates
Annealing
Carbon
Catalysts
Chemistry
Density functional theory
Dioxides
Durability
Electrocatalysts
Electrochemistry
Electrolysis
Electrolytes
Evolution
Iridium
Mass spectroscopy
Materials science
Membranes
Morphology
Nanoparticles
Nickel
Oxidation
Oxygen
Oxygen evolution reactions
Protons
Reserves
Ruthenium
Ruthenium oxide
Stability
Water splitting
ISSN:1476-1122, 1476-4660, 1476-4660
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Iridium-based electrocatalysts remain the only practical anode catalysts for proton exchange membrane (PEM) water electrolysis, due to their excellent stability under acidic oxygen evolution reaction (OER), but are greatly limited by their high cost and low reserves. Here, we report a nickel-stabilized, ruthenium dioxide (Ni-RuO ) catalyst, a promising alternative to iridium, with high activity and durability in acidic OER for PEM water electrolysis. While pristine RuO showed poor acidic OER stability and degraded within a short period of continuous operation, the incorporation of Ni greatly stabilized the RuO lattice and extended its durability by more than one order of magnitude. When applied to the anode of a PEM water electrolyser, our Ni-RuO catalyst demonstrated >1,000 h stability under a water-splitting current of 200 mA cm , suggesting potential for practical applications. Density functional theory studies, coupled with operando differential electrochemical mass spectroscopy analysis, confirmed the adsorbate-evolving mechanism on Ni-RuO , as well as the critical role of Ni dopants in stabilization of surface Ru and subsurface oxygen for improved OER durability.
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ISSN:1476-1122
1476-4660
1476-4660
DOI:10.1038/s41563-022-01380-5