Abstract
Development of acid-stable electrocatalysts with low overpotential for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is a major challenge to produce hydrogen directly from water. We report in this paper a pyrochlore yttrium ruthenate (Y2Ru2O7-δ) electrocatalyst that has significantly enhanced performance toward OER in acid media over the best-known catalysts, with an onset overpotential of 190 mV and high stability in 0.1 M perchloric acid solution. X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) indicates Y2Ru2O7-δ electrocatalyst had a low valence state that favors the high OER activity. Density functional theory (DFT) calculation shows this pyrochlore has lower band center energy for the overlap between Ru 4d and O 2p orbitals and is therefore more stable Ru-O bond than RuO2, highlighting the effect of yttrium on the enhancement in stability. The Y2Ru2O7-δ pyrochlore is also free of expensive iridium metal and thus is a cost-effective candidate for practical applications.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 12076-12083 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Journal of the American Chemical Society |
| Volume | 139 |
| Issue number | 34 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Aug 30 2017 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Catalysis
- General Chemistry
- Biochemistry
- Colloid and Surface Chemistry