Determining the electrochemical activation mechanism of Prussian blue analog precatalysts for a high-efficiency oxygen evolution reaction

Wei Hua, Huanhuan Sun, Yueying Li, Yu Zhang, Jian Gan Wang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

Prussian blue analogs (PBAs) are effective precatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER); however, the underlying mechanism of their electrochemical activation is still not well elucidated. In this study, we designed and constructed PBA-based precatalysts to determine the electrochemical activation mechanism and achieve high-efficiency OER. The PBAs undergo in situ electrochemical transformation to form the corresponding metal (oxy)hydroxides (M(O)OH) as the true OER catalyst. More importantly, the hexacyanoferrate ligands undergo repetitive interfacial coordination/etching with/from M(O)OH during the activation process. The distinct mechanism could achieve in situ Fe doping and enable defect incorporation. The defect-enriched Fe-NiOOH derived from a well-designed NiHCF/Ni(OH)2 precatalyst requires a low overpotential of 227 mV to reach a current density of 10 mA cm−2 and works stably at 130 mA cm−2 over 100 h. This study provides fundamental insights into the electrochemical activation mechanism for developing advanced precatalysts for OER.

Original languageEnglish
Article number9370014
JournalEnergy Materials and Devices
Volume1
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2023

Keywords

  • Prussian blue analogs
  • electrochemical activation
  • oxygen evolution reaction
  • water splitting

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