Tensile straining of iridium sites in manganese oxides for proton-exchange membrane water electrolysers

Abstract Although the acidic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) plays a crucial role in proton-exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE) devices, challenges remain owing to the lack of efficient and acid-stable electrocatalysts. Herein, we present a low-iridium electrocatalyst in which tensile-strained iridium atoms are localized at manganese-oxide surface cation sites (TS-Ir/MnO 2 ) for high and sustainable OER activity. In situ synchrotron characterizations reveal that the TS-Ir/MnO 2 can trigger a continuous localized lattice oxygen-mediated (L-LOM) mechanism. In particular, the L-LOM process could substantially boost the adsorption and transformation of H 2 O molecules over the oxygen vacancies around the tensile-strained Ir sites and prevent further loss of lattice oxygen atoms in the inner MnO 2 bulk to optimize the structural integrity of the catalyst. Importantly, the resultant PEMWE device fabricated using TS-Ir/MnO 2 delivers a current density of 500 mA cm −2 and operates stably for 200 h.