Coordination engineering of iridium nanocluster bifunctional electrocatalyst for highly efficient and pH-universal overall water splitting
Journal
Nature Communications
Journal Volume
11
Journal Issue
1
Date Issued
2020
Author(s)
Abstract
Water electrolysis offers a promising energy conversion and storage technology for mitigating the global energy and environmental crisis, but there still lack highly efficient and pH-universal electrocatalysts to boost the sluggish kinetics for both cathodic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Herein, we report uniformly dispersed iridium nanoclusters embedded on nitrogen and sulfur co-doped graphene as an efficient and robust electrocatalyst for both HER and OER at all pH conditions, reaching a current density of 10 mA cm?2 with only 300, 190 and 220 mV overpotential for overall water splitting in neutral, acidic and alkaline electrolyte, respectively. Based on probing experiments, operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy and theoretical calculations, we attribute the high catalytic activities to the optimum bindings to hydrogen (for HER) and oxygenated intermediate species (for OER) derived from the tunable and favorable electronic state of the iridium sites coordinated with both nitrogen and sulfur. ? 2020, The Author(s).
Subjects
graphene; iridium; nanocluster; nanoparticle; nitrogen; sulfur; unclassified drug; atomic absorption spectroscopy; catalysis; catalyst; chemical property; chemical reaction; detection method; electrokinesis; experimental study; inorganic compound; pH; absorption spectroscopy; Article; catalyst; crystal structure; current density; density functional theory; electrocatalyst; electrochemical analysis; electrolysis; energy conversion; entropy; Fourier transform; oxygen evolution; pH; pyrolysis; Raman spectrometry; scanning electron microscopy; water splitting; X ray absorption spectroscopy
SDGs
Other Subjects
graphene; iridium; nanocluster; nanoparticle; nitrogen; sulfur; unclassified drug; atomic absorption spectroscopy; catalysis; catalyst; chemical property; chemical reaction; detection method; electrokinesis; experimental study; inorganic compound; pH; absorption spectroscopy; Article; catalyst; crystal structure; current density; density functional theory; electrocatalyst; electrochemical analysis; electrolysis; energy conversion; entropy; Fourier transform; oxygen evolution; pH; pyrolysis; Raman spectrometry; scanning electron microscopy; water splitting; X ray absorption spectroscopy
Type
journal article