Lattice Oxygen Activation for Enhanced Electrochemical Oxygen Evolution

Lattice oxygen redox of solid-state material hosts is an emerging observation in electrochemistry. Toward the anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in water electrolysis with sluggish kinetics, the activation of lattice oxygen alters the reaction mechanism profoundly, either facilitating the nucleophilic attack of O–O coupling in the conventional adsorbate evolution mechanism (AEM) or directly triggering the participation of lattice oxygen into gaseous O2 generation via the lattice oxygen-mediated mechanism (LOM). In-depth understanding at the molecular level further provides the research community with fundamental guidelines for advanced OER catalyst design. Herein, we present the physicochemical principles of correlation between the band alignment and the preferential OER mechanism. The recent progress about the key roles of lattice oxygen activation in OER activity improvement is then comprehensively discussed. Finally, we propose the remaining challenges and future perspectives of lattice oxygen activation for the potential advancements in electrocatalysis.