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Push‐Pull Electronic Effects in Surface‐Active Sites Enhance Electrocatalytic Oxygen Evolution on Transition Metal Oxides
Author(s) -
GarcésPineda Felipe Andrés,
Chuong Nguyën Huu,
BlascoAhicart Marta,
GarcíaTecedor Miguel,
Fez Febré Mabel,
Tang PengYi,
Arbiol Jordi,
Giménez Sixto,
GalánMascarós José Ramón,
López Núria
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
chemsuschem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.412
H-Index - 157
eISSN - 1864-564X
pISSN - 1864-5631
DOI - 10.1002/cssc.202002782
Subject(s) - overpotential , oxygen evolution , spinel , electrocatalyst , transition metal , electronic structure , materials science , redox , inorganic chemistry , chemistry , chemical engineering , chemical physics , catalysis , nanotechnology , electrochemistry , computational chemistry , metallurgy , electrode , biochemistry , engineering
Sustainable electrocatalysis of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) constitutes a major challenge for the realization of green fuels. Oxides based on Ni and Fe in alkaline media have been proposed to avoid using critical raw materials. However, their ill‐defined structures under OER conditions make the identification of key descriptors difficult. Here, we have studied Fe−Ni−Zn spinel oxides, with a well‐defined crystal structure, as a platform to obtain general understanding on the key contributions. The OER reaches maximum performance when: (i) Zn is present in the Spinel structure, (ii) very dense, equimolar 1 : 1 : 1 stoichiometry sites appear on the surface as they allow the formation of oxygen vacancies where Zn favors pushing the electronic density that is pulled by the octahedral Fe and tetrahedral Ni redox pair lowering the overpotential. Our work proves cooperative electronic effects on surface active sites as key to design optimum OER electrocatalysts.