Nanovoid Incorporated IrxCu Metallic Aerogels for Oxygen Evolution Reaction Catalysis

By Qiurong Shi, Chengzhou Zhu, Hong Zhong, D. Su, Na Li, M. Engelhard, Haibing Xia, Qiang Zhang, Shuo Feng, S. Beckman and 2 more. ACS Energy Letters, 2018

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Ir-based nanomaterials are regarded as state-of-the-art cathode electrocatalysts in proton exchange membrane water electrolyzers (PEMWEs). Engineering the morphology of Ir-based three-dimensional architectures as electrocatalysts toward oxygen evolution reaction (OER) has been rarely studied. Here, we report the gelation of IrxCu metallic hydrogels self-assembled with ultrafine and nanovoid incorporated building blocks for enhancing the electrocatalytic performance toward OER. The composition-optimized Ir3Cu metallic aerogels exhibited improved catalytic activity and durability toward OER. The mesosized voids generated through the in situ galvanic replacement reaction and the macrosized porous systems make a great contribution to the increased number of active sites. First-principle calculations revealed the intrinsic optimized binding energy of Ir by alloying with Cu. The best catalytic performance necessities a balance of the adsorption and desorption energy. The well-defined morphology and enhanced OER...

Subfields: Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/cd81fdfeda66f3e6fa43baf721ad88362a64fd23