Lanthanum-assisted lattice anchoring of iridium in Co<sub>3</sub>O<sub>4</sub> for efficient oxygen evolution reaction in low-iridium water electrolysis.
basic_science · Level V
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 40885743.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-025-63577-x and PMC identifier 12398609.
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Abstract
The use of single-atom catalysts is an effective way to reduce the amount of iridium in proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEM-WE). However, conventional methods can only obtain surface-loaded single atoms or clusters which cannot meet the needs of high current density and stability. In this study, assisted by lanthanum-doping-induced ion exchange, we realize atomically anchoring iridium within the Co<sub>3</sub>O<sub>4</sub> lattice. The lattice anchored iridium in lanthanum-doped Co<sub>3</sub>O<sub>4</sub> exhibits higher atomic dispersion, a larger average coordination number, and an elevated oxidation state. This improvement stimulates the oxide path mechanism (OPM), resulting in enhanced activity (236 mV at 10 mA cm<sup>-2</sup>) and stability (1000 h at 10 mA cm<sup>-2</sup>). Impressively, our catalyst demonstrates notable performance in a PEM electrolyzer with an iridium mass loading of just 0.2 mg<sub>Ir</sub> cm<sup>-2</sup>, achieving a low cell voltage of 1.61 V at 1.0 A cm<sup>-2</sup> and maintaining stable operation for over 1000 h. This work presents an effective strategy for fabricating low-noble-metal-loading catalysts with enhanced efficiency for PEM-WE.