Efficient oxygen evolution in acidic electrolysis of water using copper loaded with iridium nanoclusters

Oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is a key step in hydrogen production by water electrolysis technology. However, developing efficient, stable, and low-cost OER electrocatalysts is still challenging. This article presents the preparation of a series of novel copper iridium nanocatalysts with heterostructures and low iridium content for OER. The electrochemical tests revealed higher OER of Cu@Ir_0.3 catalyst under acidic conditions with a generated current density of 10 mA/cm² at only 284 mV overpotential. The corresponding OER mass activity was estimated to be 1.057 A/mg_Ir, a value 8.39-fold higher than that of the commercial IrO₂. After 50 h of endurance testing, the Cu@Ir_0.3 catalyst preserved excellent catalytic activity with a negligible rise in overpotential and maintained a good heterostructures. Cu@Ir_0.3 The excellent OER activity can be attributed to its heterostructure, as confirmed by density functional theory (DFT) calculations, indicating that Cu@Ir The coupling between isoquanta causes charge redistribution, optimizing the adsorption energy of unsaturated Ir sites for oxygen intermediates and reducing the energy barrier of OER free energy determining the rate step. In summary, this method provides a new approach for designing efficient, stable, and low iridium content OER catalysts.