Acidic Water Oxidation on Quantum Dots of IrOx/Graphdiyne

Abstract Efficient acidic water oxidation utilization in the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is still an important bottleneck for hydrogen production. From fundamental principles, a controllable graphdiyne (GDY) induced growth strategy is established; highly uniform size distribution of oxidized iridium quantum dots is prepared on the surface of graphdiyne (IrO x QD/GDY). The result shows that, the catalyst exhibits excellent activity and durability for acidic OER, with a current density of 10 mA cm −2 at a small overpotential of 236 mV versus the reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) and a Tafel slope of 70 mV dec −1 . The performance is greatly superior to previously reported electrocatalysts. Remarkably, the acidic electrolyzer using IrO x QD/GDY as both cathode and anode electrodes can reach 10 mA cm −2 only at a much low cell voltage of 1.49 V (vs RHE). The results show the superior advantages of graphdiyne in effectively increasing numbers of the catalytically active sites for improving the charge transfer behavior and protecting the metal catalysts from corrosion.