A Highly Active Oxygen Evolution Catalyst for Lithium-Oxygen Batteries Enabled by High-Surface-Energy Facets

Abstract

Summary Rational catalyst design for nonaqueous oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is critical to enable efficient rechargeable Li-O 2 batteries. Here, we show that promoting the fraction of the high-surface-energy facet of the catalyst is an effective approach to increase the Li-O 2 OER activity. We designed a series of chromium oxide (Cr 2 O 3 ) with varying fractions of high-energy facet by inhibiting the growth of the low-energy facet, i.e., (012) of Cr 2 O 3 . Remarkably, the Li-O 2 OER activity of Cr 2 O 3 increases with increasing fraction of high-energy facet and demonstrates higher activity than the state-of-the-art precious metal Ru/Vulcan carbon catalyst by more than 120 mV, representing one of the most active Li-O 2 OER catalysts. Our study demonstrates that surface energy of catalyst is a key material property governing the Li-O 2 OER activity and offers an effective catalyst design strategy for rechargeable Li-O 2 batteries.