Cerium-doped construction of oxygen vacancies in IrO2 to promote acidic OER reaction

Proton exchange membrane electrolysis of water is currently recognized in the world as an up-and-coming method for the preparation of green hydrogen energy. Due to its sustainability and low pollution, it has attracted much attention from practitioners recently. The most advanced iridium oxide (IrO2) is the most promising catalyst. However, developing a highly efficient and stable IrO2 catalyst that can adapt to industrial conditions remains a terrific challenge. One of the main problems to be solved is that the slow oxygen evolution reaction(OER) at the anode limits the production of hydrogen. We propose a straightforward method for synthesizing Ce metal-doped IrO2 with a high oxygen vacancy concentration while simultaneously improving the IrO2 catalytic activity and stability. The Ce-doped IrO2 (Ce-IrO2) exhibits a microscopic nanoparticle morphology and a high density of oxygen vacancies, enabling a rapid oxygen evolution reaction (OER) process with a low overpotential of 240 mV at 10 mA & sdot;cm-2 and a remarkable stability of over 50 h under acidic conditions. A growing body of research shows a synergistic effect of oxygen vacancies and mental dopants on the adsorption and evolution of active intermediates in the active center so that the oxygen evolution reaction activity of the Ir-based catalyst can be improved. We hope that our work will provide a sample method for acquiring catalysts capable of adapting to a wide range of conditions via metal doping.