Thermally Stimulated Spin Switching Accelerates Water Electrolysis
Mengfei Lu, Yu Du, Shicheng Yan, Tao Yu, Zhigang Zou
Abstract
Water electrolysis suffers from electron transfer barriers during oxygen evolution reactions, which are spin-related for magnetic materials. Here, the electron transfer at the Fe_{64}Ni_{36}-FeNiO_{x}H_{y} interface is effectively accelerated when the electrode is heated to trigger the Invar effect in Fe_{64}Ni_{36} Invar alloy, providing more unoccupied orbitals as electron transfer channels without pairing energy. As a result of thermally stimulated changes in electronic states, Fe_{64}Ni_{36}/FeNiO_{x}H_{y} achieved a cascaded oxidation of the catalytic center and water. Unlike direct modifications made by varying compositions and synthesis, regulating electronic states by energy field opens a new avenue to discover materials with energy coupling effects.