Highly efficient anion exchange membrane water electrolyzers via chromium-doped amorphous electrocatalysts

Sicheng Li; Tong Liu; Wei Zhang; Mingzhen Wang; Huijuan Zhang; Chunlan Qin; Lingling Zhang; Yudan Chen; Shuaiwei Jiang; Dong Liu; Xiaokang Liu; Huijuan Wang; Qiquan Luo; Tao Ding; Tao Yao

doi:10.1038/s41467-024-47736-0

Highly efficient anion exchange membrane water electrolyzers via chromium-doped amorphous electrocatalysts

Nat Commun. 2024 Apr 22;15(1):3416. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-47736-0.

Authors

Sicheng Li^#¹, Tong Liu^#¹, Wei Zhang², Mingzhen Wang³, Huijuan Zhang¹, Chunlan Qin¹, Lingling Zhang¹, Yudan Chen¹, Shuaiwei Jiang¹, Dong Liu¹, Xiaokang Liu¹, Huijuan Wang⁴, Qiquan Luo⁵, Tao Ding⁶, Tao Yao⁷

Affiliations

¹ School of Nuclear Science and Technology, Key Laboratory of Precision and Intelligent Chemistry, Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, P.R. China.
² School of Nuclear Science and Technology, Key Laboratory of Precision and Intelligent Chemistry, Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, P.R. China. zhangw94@ustc.edu.cn.
³ Zhongke Enthalpy (Anhui) New Energy Technology Co. Ltd, Hefei, P.R. China.
⁴ Experimental Center of Engineering and Materials Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, P.R. China.
⁵ Institutes of Physical Science and Information Technology, Anhui University, Hefei, P.R. China.
⁶ School of Nuclear Science and Technology, Key Laboratory of Precision and Intelligent Chemistry, Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, P.R. China. dingtao@ustc.edu.cn.
⁷ School of Nuclear Science and Technology, Key Laboratory of Precision and Intelligent Chemistry, Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, P.R. China. yaot@ustc.edu.cn.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

In-depth comprehension and modulation of the electronic structure of the active metal sites is crucial to enhance their intrinsic activity of electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) toward anion exchange membrane water electrolyzers (AEMWEs). Here, we elaborate a series of amorphous metal oxide catalysts (FeCrO_x, CoCrO_x and NiCrO_x) with high performance AEMWEs by high-valent chromium dopant. We discover that the positive effect of the transition from low to high valence of the Co site on the adsorption energy of the intermediate and the lower oxidation barrier is the key factor for its increased activity by synchrotron radiation in-situ techniques. Particularly, the CoCrO_x anode catalyst achieves the high current density of 1.5 A cm^-2 at 2.1 V and maintains for over 120 h with attenuation less than 4.9 mV h^-1 in AEMWE testing. Such exceptional performance demonstrates a promising prospect for industrial application and providing general guidelines for the design of high-efficiency AEMWEs systems.