Acidic Oxygen Evolution Electrocatalysts for Proton Exchange Membrane Water Electrolysis
This community focuses on designing electrocatalysts that efficiently split water into hydrogen and oxygen in acidic environments, specifically for use in proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzers.
The work centers on the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) under acidic conditions, where catalyst stability is a primary challenge. Recurring materials include iridium oxide, ruthenium oxide, and various doped or supported variants of these oxides. Key methodological themes involve engineering lattice oxygen participation, optimizing porous transport layers, and enhancing catalyst stability through structural modifications like core-shell heterostructures or atomic dispersion. The application is consistently tied to PEM water electrolysis, with significant attention to gigawatt-scale deployment considerations and the reduction of iridium loading.
The community is most heavily represented in research tracked for iridium, accounting for 6.7% of all iridium research and comprising 2,837 papers. It also constitutes 2.3% of ruthenium research (1,785 papers) and 0.8% of oxygen research (4,200 papers).
The community comprises 10,502 papers, with the highest publication volume in the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, the Journal of The Electrochemical Society, and Electrochimica Acta.
Recent work continues to refine acidic oxygen evolution mechanisms, focusing on stabilizing lattice oxygen, engineering interfacial water interactions, and developing non-iridium-based catalysts for durable PEM water electrolysis.