Polyoxometalate-Derived Ir/WOx/rGO Nanocomposites for Enhanced Electrocatalytic Water Splitting

Iridium (Ir)-based nanomaterials are promising electrocatalysts for water splitting, and to alleviate their costs as well as improve the performances are always important tasks. Polyoxometalates (POMs) composed of abundant metal, oxygen, and heteroatoms are nanoclusters with defined structures. Benefitting from the inherent advantages of POMs, highly dispersive and unprotected Ir nanoparticles originating from Ir-based colloid solution were successfully anchored on POM-derived WO3/rGO nanocomposites for the first time. Interestingly, the obtained hybrid material Ir/WOx/rGO delivered improved electrocatalytic performance for water splitting, which is attributed to the addition of only quite small amount of POM derivatives. This work is also the first proof that POM can be employed as precursor to construct metal oxides to support Ir catalysts, providing a new vision for the design of advanced multi-metal electrocatalysts.

Automated summary

This study successfully anchored highly dispersive and unprotected Ir nanoparticles on POM-derived WO3/rGO nanocomposites, which led to improved electrocatalytic performance for water splitting. This work also demonstrated the potential of using POMs as precursors to construct metal oxides to support Ir catalysts for advanced multi-metal electrocatalysts design.