Crystalline to Amorphous: Unveiling the Potential of Transition Metal Oxide‐based Electrocatalysts for Facile Oxygen Evolution Reaction in Alkaline Media

Abstract

AbstractTransition metal oxides/hydroxides exhibit reasonable oxygen activity in alkaline electrolytes and have been identified as potential electrocatalysts. Some highly active transition metal oxides or hydroxides can alter their surface chemistry in response to the electrolyte environment. This review presents the performance of some of the recently developed transition metal‐based oxides in electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Despite the promising catalytic activity of many transition metals and their alloys due to their incompletely filled d orbitals, their low corrosion resistance in alkaline media barriers their use as electrocatalysts. Metallic glasses (MGs), with their disordered atomic structure, have many unique and exciting properties that cannot be found in crystalline metals. Metallic glasses′ unique chemical activity and corrosion resistance stem from their metastable and defective nature, as well as their structural and chemical homogeneity. In the case of Zr‐based MGs, the presence of MG−OHads and MG−Ox species on the surface for oxygen evolution enables rapid electron transfer to chemisorbed OH− with an “activated” MG surface leading to the generation of an amorphous Zr‐rich layer. Zr‐rich oxide layer formation favors the OER understood by decreased Tafel slope and highly stable nature during open circuit potential measurements in the alkaline solution. Unlike the as‐spun counterpart, the relatively small impedance magnitude and characteristic frequency for the post‐OER electrode corroborate the enhancement of oxygen evolution kinetics after electrochemistry. Compared with the early discovered electrodes, the MG‐oxide assembly outperforms many transition and precision metal‐based oxides and their composite forms regarding oxygen electroactivity and stability.