Anion exchange membrane water electrolysis enhanced by reverse electron redistribution caused by La introduction
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The built-in electric field (BIEF) formed by the rational hetero coupling of heterogeneous catalysts can reconstruct the electron distribution for efficient anion exchange membrane water electrolysis (AEMWE). However, the Schottky barrier caused by the Fermi-level difference prevents the adsorption performance of reaction intermediates in Mott-Schottky heterojunctions. Herein, a Schottky-based Ohmic contact of La5Mo4O16-Co2P with a tunneling effect is designed by conventional hydrothermal and annealing methods. The UPS, in situ ATR-FTIR, and DFT calculations reveal that the role of inducing La elements: i) pump electrons to Co2P bulk to inhibit the original excessive oxidation, thus improving the electron transfer efficiency, forming Ohmic contact and a reversed BIEF for higher charge density at the hetero interface; ii) induces Co sites with lower adsorption energies of reaction intermediates for both HER (*H) and OER (*OH, *O, and *OOH), improving bifunctional water electrolysis performance with low overpotentials of 139.9 mV and 191.0 mV for hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions (HER and OER) at 100 mA cm-2 respectively and stable durability of 100 h. Impressively, the AEMWE with La5Mo4O16-Co2P as both the anode and cathode electrodes exhibits a cell voltage of 2.4 V better than that of 2.6 V for Pt/C-IrCo. This work proposes new sights to optimize the BIEF and promote the heterogeneous coupling for the next generation of superior bifunctional water electrolytic catalysts.
Language: English
Field: Energy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $5,950
Award: G4647192341
OpenAlex ID: W4409112178