Abstract:We have developed ah ighly active nanostructured iridium catalyst for anodes of proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysis.C lusters of nanosized crystallites are obtained by reducing surfactant-stabilized IrCl 3 in water-free conditions.T he catalyst shows af ive-fold higher activity towards oxygen evolution reaction (OER) than commercial Ir-black. The improved kinetics of the catalyst are reflected in the high performance of the PEM electrolyzer (1 mg Ir cm À2 ), showing an unparalleled low overpotential and negligible degradation. Our results demonstrate that this enhancement cannot be only attributed to increased surface area, but rather to the ligand effect and low coordinate sites resulting in ahigh turnover frequency (TOF). The catalyst developed herein sets ab enchmark and as trategy for the development of ultra-low loading catalyst layers for PEM electrolysis.
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