Facile Electron Transfer in Atomically Coupled Heterointerface for Accelerated Oxygen Evolution

An efficient and cost-effective approach for the development of advanced catalysts has been regarded as a sustainable way for green energy utilization. The general guideline to design active and efficient catalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is to achieve high intrinsic activity and the exposure of more density of the interfacial active sites. The heterointerface is one of the most attractive ways that plays a key role in electrochemical water oxidation. Herein, atomically cluster-based heterointerface catalysts with strong metal support interaction (SMSI) between WMnO and TiO are designed. In this case, the WMnO nanoflakes are uniformly decorated by TiO particles to create electronic effect on WMnO nanoflakes as confirmed by X-ray absorption near edge fine structure. As a result, the engineered heterointerface requires an OER onset overpotential as low as 200 mV versus reversible hydrogen electrode, which is stable for up to 30 h of test. The outstanding performance and long-term durability are due to SMSI, the exposure of interfacial active sites, and accelerated reaction kinetics. To confirm the synergistic interaction between WMnO and TiO, and the modification of the electronic structure, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS), and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) are used.