Ultrafine Ir Nanowires with Microporous Channels and Superior Electrocatalytic Activity for Oxygen Evolution Reaction

Hydrogen energy is considered as an ideal candidate energy of traditional fossil fuels. Oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is a crucial reaction for the sustainable hydrogen generation as a half reaction of water splitting. It is important to develop efficient electrocatalysts for the OER. Herein, the porous iridium nanowires (Ir PNWs) with polyallylamine hydrochloride (PAH) as a complex-forming agent and capping agent have been successfully synthesized through a one-pot hydrothermal approach. Benefiting from the inherent anisotropic characteristic of one-dimensional nanowires structure, abundant microporous channels and high atom utilization efficiency, the synthesized Ir PNWs possess very large electrochemically active surface area (118.2 m(2) g(-1)), and thus exhibit superior electrocatalytic activity and stability towards the OER compared with commercial RuO2 catalyst and other Ir nanocrystals.