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Torsion strained iridium oxide for efficient acidic water oxidation in proton exchange membrane electrolyzers

Nature Nanotechnology volume 16, pages 1371–1377 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Acidic oxygen evolution reaction is crucial for practical proton exchange membrane water splitting electrolysers, which have been hindered by the high catalytic overpotential and high loading of noble metal catalysts. Here we present a torsion-strained Ta0.1Tm0.1Ir0.8O2-δ nanocatalyst with numerous grain boundaries that exhibit a low overpotential of 198 mV at 10 mA cm−2 towards oxygen evolution reaction in 0.5 M H2SO4. Microstructural analyses, X-ray absorption spectroscopy and theoretical calculations reveal that the synergistic effects between grain boundaries that result in torsion-strained Ir–O bonds and the doping induced ligand effect collectively tune the adsorption energy of oxygen intermediates, thus enhancing the catalytic activity. A proton exchange membrane electrolyser using a Ta0.1Tm0.1Ir0.8O2-δ nanocatalyst with a low mass loading of 0.2 mg cm−2 can operate stably at 1.5 A cm−2 for 500 hours with an estimated cost of US$1 per kilogram of H2, which is much lower than the target (US$2 per kg of H2) set by the US Department of Energy.

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Fig. 1: Synthesis and characterization of torsion-strained TaxTmyIr1−x−yO2−δ nanocatalysts.
Fig. 2: Surface XPS and bulk XANES, EXAFS analyses of various GB-TaxTmyIr1−x−yO2−δ catalysts.
Fig. 3: Electrocatalytic properties of various TaxTmyIr1−x−yO2−δ nanocatalysts towards OER in 0.5 M H2SO4 electrolyte.
Fig. 4: Tuning the electronic structures of IrO2−δ by strain and doping to enhance OER activity.
Fig. 5: Water splitting PEM electrolyser using GB-TaxTmyIr1−x−yO2−δ nanocatalysts as the anode catalysts in 0.5 M H2SO4 electrolyte at 50 °C.

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All data needed to evaluate the conclusions in the paper are presented in the paper or the Supplementary Information.  Source data are provided with this paper. Extra data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2020XZZX002-07), Natural Science Foundation of China (project nos. U1932148, 21872174, 51672057, 21676246 and 21776248) and International Science and Technology Cooperation Program (grant nos. 2018YFE0203400 and 2017YFE0127800). H.S. and S.J. thank the US NSF (grant no. CHE-1955074) for support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Biomass Chemical Engineering of Ministry of Education, College of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China

    Shaoyun Hao, Guokui Zheng, Fan Zhang, Xiangnan Liu, Zhiwei Su, Jiajun Hu, Yang Qian, Lina Zhou, Yi He, Lecheng Lei & Xingwang Zhang

  2. Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States

    Hongyuan Sheng, Jinzhen Huang & Song Jin

  3. School of Physics and Electronics, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China

    Min Liu

  4. Center for Composite Materials and Structures, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China

    Jinzhen Huang & Bo Song

  5. Institute of Zhejiang University-Quzhou, Quzhou, China

    Lecheng Lei & Xingwang Zhang

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  1. Shaoyun Hao
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Contributions

X.Z. and S.J. conceived the idea. X.Z. designed experiments. S.H. prepared the samples, characterized them and analysed the data. H.S. and J.H. helped to analyse the XPS and electrochemical data. M.L. helped to analyse EXAFS data. G.Z. and Y.H. performed the DFT calculations. F.Z., X.L., Z.S., J.H., Y.Q. and L.Z. assisted in the fabrication of PEM electrolysers and analysed the device efficiency. S.H., H.S., J.H., B.S., L.L., X.Z. and S.J. wrote the paper with input from all authors.

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Correspondence to Xingwang Zhang or Song Jin.

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Hao, S., Sheng, H., Liu, M. et al. Torsion strained iridium oxide for efficient acidic water oxidation in proton exchange membrane electrolyzers. Nat. Nanotechnol. 16, 1371–1377 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-021-00986-1

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