Designing highly efficient oxygen evolution reaction electrocatalyst of high-entropy oxides FeCoNiZrOx: Theory and experiment

Haiqing Zhao; Tao Wang; Can Li; Miaogen Chen; Lengyuan Niu; Yinyan Gong

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.108718

Designing highly efficient oxygen evolution reaction electrocatalyst of high-entropy oxides FeCoNiZrO_x: Theory and experiment

iScience. 2023 Dec 13;27(1):108718. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.108718. eCollection 2024 Jan 19.

Authors

Haiqing Zhao¹, Tao Wang², Can Li¹, Miaogen Chen³, Lengyuan Niu¹, Yinyan Gong¹

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Optoelectronic Materials and Devices of Zhejiang Province, College of Optical and Electronic Technology, China Jiliang University, Hangzhou 310018, China.
² School of Micro-Nano Electronics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.
³ Department of Physics, China Jiliang University, Hangzhou 310018, China.

Abstract

The correlations between the experimental methods and catalytic activities are urgent to be defined for the design of highly efficient catalysts. In this work, a new oxygen evolution reaction electrocatalyst of high-entropy oxide (HEO) FeCoNiZrO_x was designed and analyzed by experimental and theoretical methods. On account of the shortened coordinate bond along with the increased annealing temperature, the atomic/electronic structures of active site were adjusted quantitatively with the aid of the pre-designed correlator of d electron density, which contributed to adjust the catalytic activity of HEO specimens. The prepared HEO specimen exhibited the low overpotentials of 245 mV at 10 mA cm^-2 and 288 mV at 100 mA cm^-2 with small Tafel slope of 35.66 mV dec^-1, fast charge transfer rate, and stable electrocatalytic activity. This strategy would be adopted to improve the catalytic activity of HEO by adjusting the d electron density of transition metal ions with suitable preparation method.

Keywords: Catalysis; Energy materials; Materials chemistry; Physical chemistry.