Boosting oxygen evolution reaction by activation of lattice‐oxygen sites in layered Ruddlesden‐Popper oxide
Yinlong Zhu,
Hassan A. Tahini,
Zhiwei Hu,
Yichun Yin,
Qian Lin,
Hainan Sun,
Yijun Zhong,
Yubo Chen,
Feifei Zhang,
Hong‐Ji Lin,
Chien‐Te Chen,
Wei Zhou,
Xiwang Zhang,
Sean C. Smith,
Zongping Shao,
Huanting Wang
Affiliations
Yinlong Zhu
Department of Chemical Engineering Monash University Clayton Victoria Australia
Hassan A. Tahini
Integrated Materials Design Laboratory, Department of Applied Mathematics, Research School of Physics and Engineering Australian National University Canberra Australian Capital Territory Australia
Zhiwei Hu
Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids Dresden Germany
Yichun Yin
Department of Chemical Engineering Monash University Clayton Victoria Australia
Qian Lin
Department of Chemical Engineering Monash University Clayton Victoria Australia
Hainan Sun
State Key Laboratory of Materials‐Oriented Chemical Engineering, College of Chemical Engineering Nanjing Tech University Nanjing China
Yijun Zhong
Department of Chemical Engineering Curtin University Perth Western Australia Australia
Yubo Chen
School of Material Science and Engineering Nanyang Technological University Singapore
Feifei Zhang
Department of Chemical Engineering Monash University Clayton Victoria Australia
Hong‐Ji Lin
National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center Hsinchu Taiwan
Chien‐Te Chen
National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center Hsinchu Taiwan
Wei Zhou
State Key Laboratory of Materials‐Oriented Chemical Engineering, College of Chemical Engineering Nanjing Tech University Nanjing China
Xiwang Zhang
Department of Chemical Engineering Monash University Clayton Victoria Australia
Sean C. Smith
Integrated Materials Design Laboratory, Department of Applied Mathematics, Research School of Physics and Engineering Australian National University Canberra Australian Capital Territory Australia
Zongping Shao
State Key Laboratory of Materials‐Oriented Chemical Engineering, College of Chemical Engineering Nanjing Tech University Nanjing China
Huanting Wang
Department of Chemical Engineering Monash University Clayton Victoria Australia
Abstract Emerging anionic redox chemistry presents new opportunities for enhancing oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity considering that lattice‐oxygen oxidation mechanism (LOM) could bypass thermodynamic limitation of conventional metal‐ion participation mechanism. Thus, finding an effective method to activate lattice‐oxygen in metal oxides is highly attractive for designing efficient OER electrocatalysts. Here, we discover that the lattice‐oxygen sites in Ruddlesden‐Popper (RP) crystal structure can be activated, leading to a new class of extremely active OER catalyst. As a proof‐of‐concept, the RP Sr3(Co0.8Fe0.1Nb0.1)2O7‐δ (RP‐SCFN) oxide exhibits outstanding OER activity (eg, 334 mV at 10 mA cm−2 in 0.1 M KOH), which is significantly higher than that of the simple SrCo0.8Fe0.1Nb0.1O3‐δ perovskite and benchmark RuO2. Combined density functional theory and X‐ray absorption spectroscopy studies demonstrate that RP‐SCFN follows the LOM under OER condition, and the activated lattice oxygen sites triggered by high covalency of metal‐oxygen bonds are the origin of the high catalytic activity.
