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Earth-abundant electrocatalysts for acidic oxygen evolution

Nature Catalysis volume 7, pages 1288–1304 (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Proton-exchange membrane water electrolysis is a promising technology for green hydrogen production, but its widespread commercialization is hindered by the high cost and scarcity of precious-metal-based catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Recent progress has been made in developing low-cost, earth-abundant electrocatalysts for the acidic OER, but little is known about degradation pathways. This makes the design of active and robust catalysts challenging. Here we review recent advances in the design of earth-abundant catalysts for the acidic OER, examining the degradation mechanisms from the device level to the catalyst electronic structure level, and highlighting the relevant characterization techniques. We discuss the thermodynamic and kinetic stability of the catalysts and present a quantitative comparative analysis of electrochemical data to evaluate different materials and design strategies for catalysts. We also examine the performance of the catalysts in proton-exchange membrane water electrolysers and conclude with a discussion of the key scientific challenges and future perspectives in the field.

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Fig. 1: Prices of precious and earth-abundant metals from January 2019 to January 2024.
Fig. 2: Degradation mechanisms at different levels under acidic OER conditions.
Fig. 3: Typical characterization techniques used for studying the acidic OER.
Fig. 4: Pourbaix diagrams for earth-abundant metals in aqueous solution at 25 °C.
Fig. 5: Comparison of the OER activity and stability of different earth-abundant catalysts.
Fig. 6: Comparison of OER activity and stability of earth-abundant catalysts using different strategies.
Fig. 7: Activity and stability of earth-abundant catalysts in PEM water electrolysers.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52102248 and 22479050), the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (2022A1515010231), the Guangzhou Basic Research Projects (Basic and Applied Basic Research Projects) (2023A04J1568), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2024ZYGXZR067), the National Key R&D Program of China (2021YFA1502400) and the Introduced Innovative R&D Team of Guangdong (2021ZT09L392). M.L. acknowledges the support of the Hightower Endowed Chair and the Georgia Tech Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China

    Rendian Wan, Tenghui Yuan, Liuchen Wang, Bing Li & Bote Zhao

  2. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Meilin Liu

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  2. Tenghui Yuan
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B.Z., M.L. and R.W. contributed to the conception of this manuscript. R.W. and B.Z. led the manuscript writing. All authors contributed to the revision of this manuscript.

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Wan, R., Yuan, T., Wang, L. et al. Earth-abundant electrocatalysts for acidic oxygen evolution. Nat Catal 7, 1288–1304 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-024-01266-6

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