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Modulation in the electronic structure of Ir-rich shell on AuIr solid solution as OER electrocatalyst for PEM electrolyzer

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Abstract

The design of low-cost and high-performance anodic electrocatalyst is essential in proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE) application. Herein, we design and synthesize a core–shell structure with Ir-rich shell and AuIr alloy core by using a simple liquid phase reduction method, which exposed a large number of active sites. The d-band center of Ir active sites, merely 2 nm in size, was shifted by the electronegativity difference between the Au and Ir atoms at the core–shell interface. The strong electronic effect can inhibit the dissolution and corrosion of Ir active sites under acidic and high potential conditions. As a result, Irx@Au0.25Ir0.75−x catalyst shows merely 235 mV overpotential at the current density of 10 mA cm−2, 75 mV lower than the commercial Ir black catalyst, and 2.6-fold higher mass activity than the commercial Ir black catalyst. Furthermore, when Irx@Au0.25Ir0.75−x was used as the anionic catalyst, the electrolysis voltage at 1 A cm−2 is 1.7 V in PEMWE, and this activity was maintained for more than 100 h and had exhibited excellent stability, indicating its ideal prospects as an electrocatalyst.

Graphical abstract

AuIr alloy with Ir-rich core and AuIr alloy shell exposed numerous active sites and improved the utilization efficiency of electrocatalyst.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Program No. 2022YFB4002001), Dalian Science and Technology Innovation Fund (No. 2021JJ11CG003), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation(2022M723090), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 22379140 ), and the DICP (Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics) (Grant: DICP I202233).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, 116023, China

    He Huang, Taipu Chen, Dahui Fang, Longsheng Cao, Guoxiang Wang, Jinkai Hao & Zhigang Shao

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100039, China

    He Huang & Taipu Chen

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  1. He Huang
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  2. Taipu Chen
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  3. Dahui Fang
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Contributions

Huang He: data curation and writing-original draft. Taipu Chen: conceptualization and writing-review & editing. Dahui Fang: validation. Longsheng Cao: formal analysis. Guoxiang Wang: writing-review & editing and methodology. Jinkai Hao: formal analysis. Zhigang Shao: writing-review & editing, resources, and supervision.

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Correspondence to Guoxiang Wang or Zhigang Shao.

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Huang, H., Chen, T., Fang, D. et al. Modulation in the electronic structure of Ir-rich shell on AuIr solid solution as OER electrocatalyst for PEM electrolyzer. J Appl Electrochem (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10800-024-02104-0

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