Dynamic Promotion of the Oxygen Evolution Reaction via Programmable Metal Oxides

• Published in: ACS energy letters 2024-05, Vol.9 (5), p.2013-2023
• Main Authors: Gathmann, Sallye R., Bartel, Christopher J., Grabow, Lars C., Abdelrahman, Omar A., Frisbie, C. Daniel, Dauenhauer, Paul J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Catalysts; Electrical properties; INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY; Oscillation; Quantum mechanics; Radiology
• ISSN: 2380-8195; 2380-8195
• DOI: 10.1021/acsenergylett.4c00365

Hydrogen gas is a promising renewable energy storage medium when produced via water electrolysis, but this process is limited by the sluggish kinetics of the anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Herein, we used a microkinetic model to investigate promoting the OER using programmable oxide catalysts (i.e., forced catalyst dynamics). We found that programmable catalysts could increase current density at a fixed overpotential (100–600× over static rates) or reduce the overpotential required to reach a fixed current density of 10 mA cm–2 (45–140% reduction vs static). In our kinetic parametrization, the key parameters controlling the quality of the catalytic ratchet were the O*-to-OOH* and O*-to-OH* activation barriers. Our findings indicate that programmable catalysts may be a viable strategy for accelerating the OER or enabling lower-overpotential operation, but a more accurate kinetic parametrization is required for precise predictions of performance, ratchet quality, and resulting energy efficiency.