Advances in Sulfide-based Electrocatalysts for Oxygen Evolution Reaction

Hydrogen energy is considered as an ideal alternative energy for mankind to fundamentally solve global problems of energy and environment due to its advantages, such as clean and pollution-free properties. Electrochemical water splitting is an important method to produce high purity hydrogen. With the increasing of actual demand, the development of highly efficient and low-cost electrocatalysts has attracted significant attention in the field of green energy. Electrochemical water splitting is composed of two half reactions: cathodic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Compared with HER, OER reaction kinetics is slow, which is considered as the bottleneck in water splitting. In order to improve the efficiency of hydrogen production, the development of efficient OER electrocatalysts is imperative but still challenging. Electrocatalysts based on transition metal have been extensively investigated as OER catalysts over the past years due to the special d-orbit structure and abundant reserves. However, the electrocatalytic efficiency of transition-metal-based electrocatalysts is still low compared with noble-metal-based catalysts. Therefore, the development of some electrocatalysts with high catalytic activity, high efficiency and stability has become the focus of people's research. Meanwhile, non-noble-metal-based OER electrocatalysts such as sulfide, selenide, phosphide and boride have been extensively further developed and with great success. Among them, sulfide electrocatalysts have not only cost advantages, but also are approaching or even surpassing RuO2 and IrO2 noble metal catalysts in terms of oxygen evolution overpotential and durability, and are sho-wing great potential application. This paper introduces the reaction mechanism of electrolytic water oxygen evolution reaction in different electrolytes, further discussing the unique physical and chemical properties of sulfide OER electrocatalysts. It has been proved that the sulfide OER electrocatalysts have unique advantages in oxygen evolution reaction. Finally, the progress of research on improvement strategies of sulfide OER catalysts is reviewed and discussed. © 2021, Materials Review Magazine. All right reserved.