Reducing the noble-metal loading without sacrificing the catalytic performance of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts is paramount yet highly challenging. Herein, IrO2@Ir/TiN electrocatalysts employing TiN as the support have been developed and shown high efficiency toward OER. TiN is found not only to disperse the IrO2@Ir nanoparticles effectively but also to exert the electronic modulation of Ir by downshifting its d-band center of 0.21 eV compared to pure IrO2. Excitingly, TiN remarkably enhances the catalytic performance of Ir, where the overpotential to achieve the current density of 10 mA cm–2 is only 265 mV for the IrO2@Ir/TiN (60 wt %) catalyst. As a result, 71.7 wt % of the Ir metal can be saved to compare with the commercial Ir-black counterpart. Moreover, TiN can inhibit the aggregation and oxidative dissolution of Ir species, thereby enhancing the operational stability. The combined advantages of TiN open a new solution to reduce the anodic catalyst cost through boosting the catalytic activity and stability.

“Green” π-conjugated photocatalysts of metal-free polymeric semiconductors beyond carbon nitride for “clean and renewable” energy source production.

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The manipulation of photoelectrodes' electron− hole pairs toward low recombination is the fundamental strategy to achieve high solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency in photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting cells. Herein, we demonstrate that a magnet placed parallel to a photoelectrode can improve the water splitting activity of typical BiVO 4 and α-Fe 2 O 3 photoanodes as well as Cu 2 O/CuO and p-Si(111) photocathodes by restraining the nonradiative recombination of their carrier. Our investigations indicate that magnetic field-assisted PEC water splitting is a more effective approach than the conventional PEC water splitting. Magnetic field assistance provides a new, effective, and general strategy to improve the activity of photoelectrodes for solar water splitting and the other PEC reactions.