Weakening s-d orbital hybridization of metallic iridium by tungsten atoms for acidic water splitting

To economically realize proton electrolyte membrane water splitting technology, stable and high-performance oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalyst is significantly demanded. In this work, we invite tungsten atoms to metallic iridium (Ir) to weaken s-d hybridization of Ir-Ir bond due to the higher electronegativity accepting electron from Ir atoms; as a result, the adsorbed O* species become electrophilic favorable for the nucleophilic attack by H 2 O leading to 22 % decrement in energy barrier for the formation of OOH* species. Therefore, iridium-tungsten (IrW) electrocatalyst exhibits 3.7-fold higher turnover frequency (TOF) than metallic Ir at overpotential of 370 mV in acidic OER catalysis. Moreover, stable OER performance is recorded due to the high cohesive energy of tungsten atoms. Additionally, TOF of IrW electrocatalyst reaches 10.1 s −1 at overpotential of 100 mV in acidic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) test, 7.6-time higher than Pt/C and metallic Ir. IrW electrocatalyst only needs 1.52 V to attain 10 mA cm −2 in acidic overall water splitting.