Iridium Oxide Coordinatively Unsaturated Active Sites Govern the Electrocatalytic Oxidation of Water

A special membrane electrode assembly to measure operando X-ray absorption spectra and resonant photoemission spectra of mesoporous templated iridium oxide films is used. These films are calcined to different temperatures to mediate the catalyst activity. By combining operando resonant photoemission measurements of different films with ab initio simulations these are able to unambiguously distinguish mu 2-O (bridging oxygen) and mu 1-O (terminal oxygen) in the near-surface regions of the catalysts. The intrinsic activity of iridium oxide scales with the formation of mu 1-O (terminal oxygen) is found. Importantly, it is shown that the peroxo species do not accumulate under reaction conditions. Rather, the formation of mu 1-O species, which are active in O-O bond formation during the OER, is the most oxidized oxygen species observed, which is consistent with an O-O rate-limiting step. Thus, the oxygen species taking part in the electrochemical oxidation of water on iridium electrodes are more involved and complex than previously stated. This result highlights the importance of employing theory together with true and complementary operando measurements capable of probing different aspects of catalysts surfaces during operation. Operando resonant photoemission measurements on mesoporous IrOx electrode membrane and ab initio calculations show that mu 2-O (bridging oxygen) and mu 1-O (terminal oxygen) are the active species rather than peroxo species. The coverage of mu 1-O and mu 2-O increases with apply potential up to approximate to 1/10 ML, which indicates that the converged is limited by the slow O-O bond formation kinetics. image