When Catalysts Breathe

Abstract

In this issue of Joule, Yi Cui and colleagues developed a breath-mimicking structure for electrocatalysis applications where gas no longer has to be dissolved into the electrolyte. Specifically, a highly efficient three-phase contact between gas, electrolyte, and catalyst is formed, facilitating both O2 evolution (OER) and reduction (ORR) reaction processes. A low overpotential of 190 mV at 10 mA/cm2 is reported in the OER process while in the ORR process significantly higher current densities are observed.