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Designing active oxides for a durable oxygen evolution reaction

Nature Synthesis volume 2, pages 817–827 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) balances the hydrogen evolution reaction when splitting water into green hydrogen and oxygen with renewable electricity. Oxygen evolution occurs at potentials at which the pre-catalysts undergo transformations into complex and disordered OER-active oxides. Traditional synthetic methods and material compositions have resulted in an enormous variety of OER pre-catalysts, yet the most active of them are forced into a few prevailing oxyhydroxide or amorphous oxide phases under operation. As a result, practically relevant catalyst activity and stability have remained unchanged for decades. Here we discuss the need to develop new theory in synergy with operando electrochemical and spectroscopic characterization to take advantage of the effects of an applied electrochemical potential gradient on the chemical composition and atomic surface structure, the hydroxide ion intercalation and other interfacial ionics. Additionally, we highlight new synthesis methods and material compositions that might translate control over the pre-catalyst into control over the active oxide phase, as well as new methods of modifying active oxides during operation.

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Fig. 1: Evolution of oxide surfaces before, during and after the OER.
Fig. 2: Activity and stability limitations for OER catalysts.
Fig. 3: Low-temperature water electrolysis technologies.
Fig. 4: Operando characterization of IrOx nanoparticles displaying various degrees of deprotonated µ1-O and µ2-O species at ~529 eV that are thought to be important for high OER activity.
Fig. 5: Operando SXRD of the disordered CoOOH skin layer that indicates a spatially extended OER-active interphase.
Fig. 6: Operando characterization of CoOx(OH)y nanoparticles showing a size-dependent oxidation leading to near-surface Co–O bond contraction due to the accumulation of oxidative charge and deprotonation.
Fig. 7: New synthesis approaches for OER electrocatalysts.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, BMBF) under grant no. 03EW0015B (CATLAB).

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  1. Department of Interface Science, Fritz-Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, Berlin, Germany

    Sebastian Z. Oener, Arno Bergmann & Beatriz Roldan Cuenya

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  1. Sebastian Z. Oener
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  2. Arno Bergmann
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  3. Beatriz Roldan Cuenya
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S.Z.O. wrote the manuscript, with help from A.B. and B.R.C.

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Correspondence to Sebastian Z. Oener.

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Nature Synthesis thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Principal Handling Editor: Alexandra Groves, in collaboration with the Nature Synthesis team.

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Oener, S.Z., Bergmann, A. & Cuenya, B.R. Designing active oxides for a durable oxygen evolution reaction. Nat. Synth 2, 817–827 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44160-023-00376-6

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