Strong Oxide-Support Interaction over IrO 2 /V 2 O 5 for Efficient pH-Universal Water Splitting

• Published in: Advanced science 2022-04, Vol.9 (11), p.e2104636
• Main Authors: Zheng, Xiaozhong, Qin, Minkai, Ma, Shuangxiu, Chen, Yuzhuo, Ning, Honghui, Yang, Rui, Mao, Shanjun, Wang, Yong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2198-3844; 2198-3844
• DOI: 10.1002/advs.202104636

Constructing strong oxide-support interaction (SOSI) is compelling for modulating the atomic configurations and electronic structures of supported catalysts. Herein, ultrafine iridium oxide nanoclusters (≈1 nm) are anchored on vanadium oxide support (IrO /V O ) via SOSI. The as made catalyst, with a unique distorted IrO structure, is discovered to significantly boost the performance for pH-universal oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Based on experimental results and theoretical calculations, the distorted IrO active sites with flexible redox states in IrO /V O server as electrophilic centers balance the adsorption of oxo-intermediates and effectively facilitate the process of OO coupling, eventually propelling the fast turnover of water oxidation. As a result, IrO /V O demonstrates not only ultralow overpotentials at 10 mA cm (266 mV, pH = 0; 329 mV, pH = 7; 283 mV, pH = 14) for OER, but also high-performance overall water electrolysis over a broad pH range, with a potential of mere 1.50 V (pH = 0), 1.65 V (pH = 7) or 1.49 V (pH = 14) at 10 mA cm . In addition, SOSI can simultaneously secure the distorted active sites and thus remarkably improving the catalytic stability, making it a promising strategy to develop high-performance catalytic systems.