Water electrolysis using earth abundant catalysts is of global importance to store renewable energy from solar, wind, and nuclear power, among others. The rational design of next generation oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts requires a greater understanding of the structural, chemical, and electronic contributions that give rise to their catalytic activities. Herein, we report the discovery of a new catalyst design principle using a series of Ruddlesden-Popper (RP) oxides that promote charge transfer interactions to significantly enhance OER catalysis. Using selective substitution of A and B-sites within the RP structure to control the extent of hybridization between transition metal eg and p(O) bands, we demonstrate exceptional OER activity. This methodology represents a new set of guiding principles for the discovery and development of more active OER catalysts. Furthermore, this work demonstrates that RP catalysts can be regulated to be highly active for the OER by rational design of structural and electronic configurations that are not realizable in many other crystalline phases of metal oxides.

Exceptional electrocatalytic oxygen evolution via tunable charge transfer interactions in Ruddlesden-Popper oxides

254th National Meeting (2017)

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