Breaking the Limitations of Activity and Stability in Powdered Materials for Oxygen Evolution Reaction: The Critical Role of Catalyst-Inducing Seeds

Abstract

Powdered catalysts are extensively employed in industrial-scale energy conversion devices but struggle with weak powder-substrate adhesion and inherent instability in gas-evolving and highly oxidative oxygen evolution reactions (OER). This work introduces an innovative strategy in which powdered materials serve a critical role as catalyst-inducing seeds to break these limitations. Specifically, powdered Ti2CTx MXene with anchored cobalt single atoms (Co-SAs) shows negligible catalytic activity on its own but serves as catalyst-inducing seeds, significantly enhancing the catalytic activity of the conductive FeNi substrate. Mechanistic studies demonstrate that Co-SAs accelerate the oxidation rate of Ti2CTx, leading to the micro-battery corrosion behavior between oxidized Co/Ti2CTx and FeNi alloy, which generates highly OER-active corrosion products tightly bonded to FeNi alloy, thereby enhancing catalytic activity and ensuring stability. The prepared porous electrode shows a low overpotential of 303 mV to deliver an ultra-high current density of 1000 mA cm−2 and maintains activity for 1200 hours under high current density conditions, rivaling advanced self-supporting electrodes. Moreover, replacing Co in Co/Ti2CTx with metals like Fe, Ni or Mn, yields comparable effects, suggesting the scalability of catalyst-inducing seeds. This approach breaks traditional limitations of powdered materials in OER, offering an effective pathway to engineer advanced catalytic electrodes.

Group Members

William A. Goddard III

Charles and Mary Ferkel Professor