Beijing University of Technology

About: Beijing University of Technology is a education organization based out in Beijing, Beijing, China. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Microstructure & Computer science. The organization has 31929 authors who have published 31987 publications receiving 352112 citations. The organization is also known as: Běijīng Gōngyè Dàxué & Beijing Polytechnic University.

General π-Electron-Assisted Strategy for Ir, Pt, Ru, Pd, Fe, Ni Single-Atom Electrocatalysts with Bifunctional Active Sites for Highly Efficient Water Splitting

Abstract: Both the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are crucial to water splitting, but require alternative active sites. Now, a general π-electron-assisted strategy to anchor single-atom sites (M=Ir, Pt, Ru, Pd, Fe, Ni) on a heterogeneous support is reported. The M atoms can simultaneously anchor on two distinct domains of the hybrid support, four-fold N/C atoms (M@NC), and centers of Co octahedra (M@Co), which are expected to serve as bifunctional electrocatalysts towards the HER and the OER. The Ir catalyst exhibits the best water-splitting performance, showing a low applied potential of 1.603 V to achieve 10 mA cm in 1.0 m KOH solution with cycling over 5 h. DFT calculations indicate that the Ir@Co (Ir) sites can accelerate the OER, while the Ir@NC sites are responsible for the enhanced HER, clarifying the unprecedented performance of this bifunctional catalyst towards full water splitting.