Rational catalyst design for oxygen evolution under acidic conditions: strategies toward enhanced electrocatalytic performance

Abstract

Electrochemical water splitting can convert the electricity derived from renewable solar and wind energy into hydrogen energy, which is considered as a promising way for hydrogen production. In principle, water splitting under acidic conditions possesses many advantages, such as high ionic conductivity, few side reactions, high proton concentrations, low ohmic losses and compact system designs. However, under acidic conditions, only a limited range of electrocatalysts could survive, especially for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), which needs a high potential. It remains a challenge to design and synthesize acidic OER electrocatalysts with high performance, which is intrinsically related to the electronic, surface and morphological structure of catalysts. Therefore, rational design of advanced OER catalysts is indispensable for superior performance. In this review, various design strategies for the development of desired catalysts with enhanced OER performance are comprehensively summarized, including defect engineering, structural manipulation, atomic arrangement tailoring, and interface regulation. The acidic OER mechanism and state-of-art OER catalysts, together with current issues, critical challenges and perspectives, are discussed. It is highly expected that this review will deepen the understanding of the acidic OER and guide us to synthesize more-efficient OER catalysts in the future.