Dynamic active-site generation of atomic iridium stabilized on nanoporous metal phosphides for water oxidation

Kang Jiang, Min Luo, Ming Peng, Yaqian Yu, Ying Rui Lu, Ting Shan Chan, Pan Liu, Frank M.F. de Groot, Yongwen Tan*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Designing efficient single-atom catalysts (SACs) for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is critical for water-splitting. However, the self-reconstruction of isolated active sites during OER not only influences the catalytic activity, but also limits the understanding of structure-property relationships. Here, we utilize a self-reconstruction strategy to prepare a SAC with isolated iridium anchored on oxyhydroxides, which exhibits high catalytic OER performance with low overpotential and small Tafel slope, superior to the IrO2. Operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy studies in combination with theory calculations indicate that the isolated iridium sites undergo a deprotonation process to form the multiple active sites during OER, promoting the O–O coupling. The isolated iridium sites are revealed to remain dispersed due to the support effect during OER. This work not only affords the rational design strategy of OER SACs at the atomic scale, but also provides the fundamental insights of the operando OER mechanism for highly active OER SACs.

Original languageEnglish
Article number2701
Pages (from-to)1-9
JournalNature Communications
Volume11
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jun 2020

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51771072), the Youth 1000 Talent Program of China, the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, and Hunan University State Key Laboratory of Advanced Design and Manufacturing for Vehicle Body Independent Research Project (No. 71860007).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Author(s).

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51771072), the Youth 1000 Talent Program of China, the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, and Hunan University State Key Laboratory of Advanced Design and Manufacturing for Vehicle Body Independent Research Project (No. 71860007).

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