Anionic defect engineering of transition metal oxides for oxygen reduction and evolution reactions

Author(s): Yunmin Zhu ¹ ^, ² ^, ³ ^, ⁴ ^, ⁵ , Xi Liu ¹ ^, ² ^, ³ ^, ⁴ ^, ⁵ , Shiguang Jin ¹ ^, ² ^, ³ ^, ⁴ ^, ⁵ , Huijun Chen ¹ ^, ² ^, ³ ^, ⁴ ^, ⁵ , Wonyoung Lee ⁶ ^, ⁷ ^, ⁸ ^, ⁹ , Meilin Liu ¹⁰ ^, ¹¹ ^, ¹² ^, ¹³ , Yan Chen ¹ ^, ² ^, ³ ^, ⁴ ^, ⁵

Publication date (Electronic): 2019

Journal: Journal of Materials Chemistry A

Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)

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Abstract

Techniques for anionic defect engineering in transition metal oxides and mechanisms of how anion defects affect their oxygen reaction activities.

Abstract

The development of cost-effective catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is crucial for enhancing the energy efficiency of many electrochemical energy conversion and storage devices. Owing to their low cost and high activity, transition metal oxides have attracted much attention as alternative electrocatalysts to replace the currently used noble metal-based catalysts. Anion defects ( e.g., oxygen vacancies, interstitials, and anion dopants) can significantly change the electronic structure of oxides or the stability of adsorbed intermediates, thus greatly enhancing the electrocatalytic activities of the oxide surface. Anionic defect engineering represents a potential new direction for rational design of high-performance electrocatalysts. In this review, recent progress in manipulating the anion defects in transition metal oxides for enhancing their activity and stability is summarized and the proposed mechanisms for enhanced performance are discussed in detail. Challenges and prospects are also discussed in the development of a new generation of highly efficient ORR and OER electrocatalysts.

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Electrocatalysis for the oxygen evolution reaction: recent development and future perspectives

Yi-Jun Xu, Sung-Fu Hung, Quan Quan … (2017)

We review the fundamental aspects of metal oxides, metal chalcogenides and metal pnictides as effective electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction. There is still an ongoing effort to search for sustainable, clean and highly efficient energy generation to satisfy the energy needs of modern society. Among various advanced technologies, electrocatalysis for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) plays a key role and numerous new electrocatalysts have been developed to improve the efficiency of gas evolution. Along the way, enormous effort has been devoted to finding high-performance electrocatalysts, which has also stimulated the invention of new techniques to investigate the properties of materials or the fundamental mechanism of the OER. This accumulated knowledge not only establishes the foundation of the mechanism of the OER, but also points out the important criteria for a good electrocatalyst based on a variety of studies. Even though it may be difficult to include all cases, the aim of this review is to inspect the current progress and offer a comprehensive insight toward the OER. This review begins with examining the theoretical principles of electrode kinetics and some measurement criteria for achieving a fair evaluation among the catalysts. The second part of this review acquaints some materials for performing OER activity, in which the metal oxide materials build the basis of OER mechanism while non-oxide materials exhibit greatly promising performance toward overall water-splitting. Attention of this review is also paid to in situ approaches to electrocatalytic behavior during OER, and this information is crucial and can provide efficient strategies to design perfect electrocatalysts for OER. Finally, the OER mechanism from the perspective of both recent experimental and theoretical investigations is discussed, as well as probable strategies for improving OER performance with regards to future developments.

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Increasing solar absorption for photocatalysis with black hydrogenated titanium dioxide nanocrystals.

Xiaobo Chen, Lei Liu, Peter Yu … (2011)

When used as a photocatalyst, titanium dioxide (TiO(2)) absorbs only ultraviolet light, and several approaches, including the use of dopants such as nitrogen, have been taken to narrow the band gap of TiO(2). We demonstrated a conceptually different approach to enhancing solar absorption by introducing disorder in the surface layers of nanophase TiO(2) through hydrogenation. We showed that disorder-engineered TiO(2) nanocrystals exhibit substantial solar-driven photocatalytic activities, including the photo-oxidation of organic molecules in water and the production of hydrogen with the use of a sacrificial reagent.