Iridium-Chromium Oxide Nanowires as Highly Performed OER Catalysts in Acidic Media

The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) severely restricts the efficiency of electrolyzers due to its sluggish kinetics. In particular, only a few OER electrocatalysts, such as expensive and scarce iridium (Ir)-based materials, have been developed to function in acidic media. Therefore, the exploration of efficient and stable electrocatalysts with decreased precious metal content for the OER in acid is desired. Herein, chromium (Cr)-incorporated IrOx solid solution nanowires not only exhibit high catalytic activity with a low overpotential of 250 mV at 10 mA cm(-2), but also display robust catalytic performance without a decay in activity throughout 25 h of testing at 10 mA cm(-2) in 0.5 M H2SO4. This improved catalytic performance for the Cr-incorporated IrOx electrocatalysts is ascribed to an abundance of exposed active sites, tuned electronic states, optimized binding energy for intermediates on the catalyst surface and the consequent facile reaction kinetics.