Chirality Engineering of Nanostructured Copper Oxide for Enhancing Oxygen Evolution from Water Electrolysis
Ying Li, Liang Qiu, Rui Tian, Zhongli Liu, Lin Yao, Lufei Huang, Wei Li, Yuyin Wang, Tao Wang, Baowen Zhou
Abstract
Abstract The exploration of a new conceptual strategy for improving the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) of earth‐abundant electrocatalysts is critical. In this study, chiral copper oxide nanoflower is explored by a self‐assembly method. The characterization suggests the chiral structure originates from the crystal plane‐level helical stack of the secondary nanosheets. Of note, the assembly illustrates a record‐high degree of spin polarization of 96%, indicating the ideal alignment of electron spin. Moreover, density function theory calculations show the chiral structure reducing the reaction energy barrier (REB) while switching the potential‐determining step from *O→*OOH to *OH→*O. Together with the enhanced electrochemical active surface area and accelerated charge transfer, the production of ground‐state triplet O 2 is improved via a spin‐forbidden route that involves the singlet H 2 O/OH•. Consequently, the chiral nanoflower shows a overpotential of 308 mV at 10 mA cm −2 and a Tafel slope of 93.5 mV dec −1 , which is even superior to the commercial RuO 2 (310 mV, 101 mV dec −1 ). This study presents a new strategy for improving the OER activity by simultaneously enhancing electronic properties and lowering the REB of an non‐noble electrocatalyst via chirality engineering.