Regulation of Perovskite Surface Stability on the Electrocatalysis of Oxygen Evolution Reaction

Abstract

Electrocatalytic water splitting is considered as a promising route to use renewable energy for hydrogen production; however, its industrial application is limited by the anodic reaction, oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The key solution to unleash this constrain is to find an electrocatalyst that reduces the overpotential (η) of OER. Among the various electrocatalysts, perovskites have attracted intense attention recently for their high OER performance and low cost. To realize the commercial potential of perovskites, understanding its surface chemistry, including leaching, reconstruction, and lattice oxygen participated OER, is crucial to develop the nextgeneration perovskite catalysts,. In this Review, the perovskite surface stability is emphasized to be closely related to the chemical component of perovskite surface, which can be well controlled by surface engineering and further improves its OER performance. A new descriptor (stability level) is proposed to highlight the relationship between OER performance and surface stability of perovskite. This descriptor will provide potential strategies to optimize OER catalytic performance by tuning surface structure of perovskite.

The Pivotal Role of s‐, p‐, and f‐Block Metals in Water Electrolysis: Status Quo and Perspectives

“…According to the current research progress, the alkaline‐earth metals are basically introduced into NNTM‐based oxides to modify their OER and/or HER activity. [ 142–167 ] Furthermore, the incorporation of alkaline‐earth metals mainly leads a fundamental role in the following four aspects. [ 145–165 ] i) Tuning the alkaline‐earth metal species in certain oxides can create lattice defects, which dictates a high conductivity and optimized free adsorption energy toward oxygen intermediates; ii) the alkaline‐earth metal species can gradually leach from the catalysts during catalysis, which will in situ leave pores in the phase reconstructed NNTM‐based (oxy)hydroxides catalysts, conducing to the exposure of active sites; iii) they mediate the formation of NNTM‐species with high oxidation state, thus resulting in the improvement of catalytic activity; and iv) the incorporation of some alkaline‐earth metal species into NNTM‐based phase can alter the morphology during synthesis, such as nanosheet, which is beneficial for the accessibility of reactants to surficial NNTM sites during catalysis.…”

Strategies for Electrochemically Sustainable H2 Production in Acid

“…[ 25 ] As illustrated in Figure 1 a,b , highly acidic electrolytes cause oxidative corrosion and dissolution of components, thereby inducing the loss of surface active centers and surface reconstruction during water electrolysis even for some robust compounds. [ 32 ] In general, complex interactions between active centers and intermediates/electrolytes under strong electric fields lead to surface reconstruction and thus activity decay. More importantly, such interactions exist in many cases, making the phenomena inevitable.…”

“…Either way, a bias higher than 1.23 eV is usually needed to overcome these thermodynamic hindrance and to initiate the OER, leading to an electron deficient state of the electrode/electrocatalyst and other types of surface reconstruction, e.g., components leaching and phase transformation even for highly stable perovskite catalysts. [32] Figure 1. a) Metal dissolution profile in relation to applied potential for Co/Co 2 P, Ni/Ni 5 P 4 , Mo/MoS 2 , and WC/W.…”

“…Reproduced with permission. [32] Copyright 2021, American Chemical Society. In addition to the main unstable factor originating in the electrode material, the reaction and device configuration/operation are also of great importance.…”

Enhancement of Catalytic Activity and Stability of La0.6Ca0.4Fe0.7Ni0.3O2.9 Perovskite with ppm Concentration of Fe in the Electrolyte for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction

“…The mechanism beneath high catalytic performance is related to lattice oxygen evolution reaction (LOER), which is characteristic of complex metal oxides (including perovskites). In light of recent studies [ 11 , 12 ], LOER is now seen as a fundamental process resulting in surface reconstruction towards highly active transition metal (oxy)hydroxides due to shallow perovskite A-site dissolution and B-site cation dissolution/re-deposition [ 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ].…”