Research on the performance of Zr-doped pyrochlore-structured Co2Sb2O7 electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction

The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) constitutes a pivotal step in numerous energy conversion and storage systems. The strategic advancement of economical, efficient, and resilient catalysts for the anode OER represents one of the pressing bottlenecks hindering their scalable implementation. Experimental results demonstrated that the synergistic effect of Zr doping and the Co 2 Sb 2 O 7 pyrochlore structure increased the oxygen vacancy content and significantly enhanced the catalytic activity. Thus, the appropriate proportion of Zr (only x  = 0.1) doped Co 2 Sb 2 O 7 pyrochlore structure exhibited excellent OER performance, reaching 10 mA cm −2 at an overpotential of only 210 mV in 0.5 M H 2 SO 4 and at an overpotential of only 216 mV in 1 M KOH solution. The catalyst operated stably for 60 h at 1 mA cm −2 in 0.5 M H 2 SO 4 and also operated stably for 60 h at 10 mA cm −2 in 1 M KOH. This study offers a promising outlook for reducing the energy consumption of noble metal catalysts used in acidic OER processes in practical electrochemical industries. Graphical abstract