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Interfacial anchoring versus surface exposure: Tuning IrOx–Co3O4 interaction for stable industrial water splitting
Peijie Ma, Jiawei Song, Pan Zhang, Yaning Hu, Yuan-Zi Xu, Kaiwen Wang*, Rui Zhang*, and Kun Zheng*
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cjsc.2025.100849
ABSTRACT
Developing efficient and durable electrocatalysts that minimize or eliminate Ir usage is essential for large-scale hydrogen production through proton exchange membrane water electrolysis. In this work, two IrOx–Co3O4 catalysts with distinct interfacial configurations were constructed to clarify the effect of structural coupling on activity and stability. The embedded IrOx–Co3O4 was prepared via a galvanic replacement–induced embedding process, while the surface-exposed IrOx–Co3O4 was obtained through photo-reduction deposition. Structural analyses confirm the formation of strong Co–O–Ir linkages in embedded IrOx–Co3O4, in contrast to discrete surface IrOx nanoparticles in the exposed sample. Electrochemical measurements show that exposed-IrOx delivers a lower overpotential of ≈ 331 mV at 10 mA cm-2 but suffers from fast Ir dissolution, whereas embedded IrOx maintains stable operation with a voltage of 1.78 V at 1 A cm-2 for over 200 h in a PEM cell. In-situ Raman and DEMS results reveal that embedded IrOx follows a dominating classical adsorbate-evolution mechanism (AEM), while exposed IrOx–Co3O4 involves a lattice-oxygen-mediated mechanism (LOM), leading to its inferior stability. This work highlights that strengthening Co–O–Ir interface effectively suppresses Ir loss and provides a general strategy for designing robust Ir-based catalysts for acidic water electrolysis.
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