Citation: Peijie Ma, Jiawei Song, Pan Zhang, Yaning Hu, Yuan-Zi Xu, Kaiwen Wang, Rui Zhang, Kun Zheng. Interfacial anchoring versus surface exposure: Tuning IrOx-Co3O4 interaction for stable industrial water splitting[J]. Chinese Journal of Structural Chemistry, ;2026, 45(4): 100849. doi: 10.1016/j.cjsc.2025.100849 shu

Interfacial anchoring versus surface exposure: Tuning IrOx-Co3O4 interaction for stable industrial water splitting

Developing efficient and durable electrocatalysts that minimize or eliminate Ir usage is essential for large-scale hydrogen production through proton exchange membrane water electrolysis. In this work, two IrOx-Co3O4 catalysts with distinct interfacial configurations were constructed to clarify the effect of structural coupling on activity and stability. The embedded IrOx-Co3O4 was prepared via a galvanic replacement-induced embedding process, while the surface-exposed IrOx-Co3O4 was obtained through photo-reduction deposition. Structural analyses confirm the formation of strong Co-O-Ir linkages in embedded IrOx-Co3O4, in contrast to discrete surface IrOx nanoparticles in the exposed sample. Electrochemical measurements show that exposed-IrOx delivers a lower overpotential of ≈ 331 mV at 10 mA cm-2 but suffers from fast Ir dissolution, whereas embedded IrOx maintains stable operation with a voltage of 1.78 V at 1 A cm-2 for over 200 h in a PEM cell. In-situ Raman and DEMS results reveal that embedded IrOx follows a dominating classical adsorbate-evolution mechanism (AEM), while exposed IrOx-Co3O4 involves a lattice-oxygen-mediated mechanism (LOM), leading to its inferior stability. This work highlights that strengthening Co-O-Ir interface effectively suppresses Ir loss and provides a general strategy for designing robust Ir-based catalysts for acidic water electrolysis.
- Interfacial anchoring,
- Proton exchange membrane water electrolysis,
- Oxygen evolution reaction,
- Water splitting
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