Surface Tip Effects Enhanced Performance of Proton Exchange Membrane Water Electrolyzers
IrO<sub>2</sub> is widely used as a benchmarking anode catalyst in a proton exchange membrane water electrolyzer (PEMWE) but suffers from insufficient activity. We report an urchin-like IrRuO<sub><i>x</i></sub> catalyst synthesized by a one-step hydrothermal method, which exhibits impressive oxygen evolution reaction activity and stability. In a PEMWE device, it achieves a current density of 6.4 A cm<sup>-2</sup> at 2 V with an Ir loading of only 0.2 mg cm<sup>-2</sup>. Notably, the catalyst also exhibits exceptional stability, operating over 1000 h at 1.0 A cm<sup>-2</sup>. Dynamic testing between 0.1 and 3.0 A cm<sup>-2</sup> further demonstrates its superior stability. This outstanding performance is primarily attributed to the unique tip effect of the urchin-like structure, enhancing areal current density and improving kinetics. This work advances the concept of catalyst surface morphology design and construction, demonstrating a practical advantage of morphology-driven enhancements, which is a feasible strategy for PEMWE to industrial applications.
Authors
- Bingqian Pang
- Wen‐Juan Shi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5687-4845)
- Xinlong Tian (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8388-5198)
- Lutong Shan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3239-1539)
- Xiaodong Shi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8565-6396)
- Peng Rao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6146-5600)
- Gaoqiang Yang
- Xue Bai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1437-6407)
- Suyang Feng
- Zhenye Kang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1731-0705)
- Jing Li
- Hui Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7113-0206)
- Yun Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5404-3909)
- Tianjiao Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-2321-2193)
Institutions
- Hunan University (CN)
- Jilin University (CN)
- Hainan University (CN)
- University of Manchester (GB)
- Vehicle Technologies Office (US)
- Jilin Medical University (CN)
- Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia (MY)
- State Key Laboratory of Inorganic Synthesis and Preparative Chemistry
- Xi'an Jiaotong University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nano Letters
- Published
- 2025-08-04
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.5c02984
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.36
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Hainan University
- Hainan Provincial Department of Science and Technology
- State Key Laboratory of Inorganic Synthesis and Preparative Chemistry, Jilin University