(Invited) Engineering Spinel Oxides to Boost Water Splitting Activity in Alkaline Electrolyte

摘要

Seeking for non-precious electrocatalysts to replace platinum and ruthenium/iridium based noble materials for water splitting has been and will be a long-term research effort for sustainable and renewable energy supply. Multiple transition metal cations-based oxides like perovskite and spinel oxides are potential candidates thanks to their more flexibility in manipulating metal cations and acceptable electrical conductivity. Sluggish water dissociation kinetics, however, has been one of the rate-limiting steps in alkaline electrolyte. In this presentation, we will focus on engineering spinel oxides-based nanostructures to boost the water splitting activity for both hydrogen evolution reaction (OER) and oxygen evolution reaction (HER) in alkaline media. The contributions from tetrahedrally and octahedrally coordinated cations in spinel oxide with comprehensive electrochemical investigations will be discussed. Spinel oxides based nanoheterojunctions to the substantially improved activity for both HER and OER also will be highlighted in terms of promoting the water dissociation process and the intrinsic activity, and modulating the electronic configurations of cations.