Research Progress on Non-Noble Metal Materials for Oxygen Evolution Reaction in Electrolytic Water Splitting

School of New Energy and intelligent Networked Automobile, Sanya University, Sanya 572018, China

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Abstract

Hydrogen energy, as a zero-carbon clean energy source, has attracted great attention. Due to its hydrogen purity is high, electrolysis of water has become an important way to make green hydrogen. However, most commercial electrolytic water catalysts are rare and costly noble metals. The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in electrolytic water has four-electron transfer and slow reaction speed, which is the key problem limiting electrolytic water efficiency. So, developing low-cost and high-performance non-noble metal OER catalysts is very urgent. This paper looks at the research progress of transition metal-based and non-metal catalysts, analyzes their performance traits, improvement methods, and ways they speed up reactions. Studies show that through methods like adding different atoms, structural design, and making defects, the activity and stability of some non-noble metal Oxygen evolution catalysts get close to or even surpass those of noble metal catalysts. But they still have problems such as dissolving in acid and not being stable enough at high current densities. In the future, we need to push the wide use of electrolytic water hydrogen production through new material systems, to lower green hydrogen costs and achieve global energy change.