Phosphate Ion Functionalization of Perovskites Surfaces for Enhanced Oxygen Evolution Reaction

DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.7b01504

Authors: Chunzhen Yang (CNRS) , Christel Laberty-robert (Sorbonne Universités – UPMC Univ.) , Dmitry Batuk (EMAT, University of Antwerp) , Giannantonio Cibin (Diamond Light Source) , Alan Chadwick (University of Kent) , Vanessa Pereira Pimenta (CNRS) , Wei Yin (CNRS) , Leiting Zhang (CNRS) , Jean-marie Tarascon (CNRS) , Alexis Grimaud (CNRS)
Co-authored by industrial partner: No

Type: Journal Paper
Journal: The Journal Of Physical Chemistry Letters

State: Published (Approved)
Published: July 2017
Diamond Proposal Number(s): 12559

Abstract: Recent findings revealed that surface oxygen can participate in the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) for the most active catalysts, which eventually triggers a new mechanism for which the deprotonation of surface intermediates limits the OER activity. We propose in this work a “dual strategy”, for which tuning the electronic properties of the oxide such as La1-xSrxCoO3–δ can be dissociated from the use of surface functionalization with phosphate ion groups (Pi) that enhances the interfacial proton transfer. Results show that the Pi functionalized La0.5Sr0.5CoO3–δ gives rise to a significant enhancement of the OER activity when compared to La0.5Sr0.5CoO3–δ and LaCoO3. We further demonstrate that the Pi surface functionalization selectivity enhances the activity when the OER kinetics is limited by the proton transfer. Finally, this work suggests that tuning the catalytic activity by such a “dual approach” may be a new and largely unexplored avenue for the design of novel high-performance catalysts.

Subject Areas: Chemistry, Materials, Energy


Instruments: B18-Core EXAFS