Te-mediated electro-driven oxygen evolution reaction

Abstract

In the 21st century, the rapid development of human society has made people’s demand for green energy more and more urgent. The high-energy-density hydrogen energy obtained by fully splitting water is not only environmentally friendly, but also is expected to solve the problems caused by the intermittent nature of new energy. However, the slow kinetics and large overpotential of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) limit its application. The introduction of Te element is expected to bring new breakthroughs. With the least electronegativity among the chalcogens, the Te element has many special properties, such as multivalent states, strong covalentity, and high electrical conductivity, which make it a promising candidate in electrocatalytic OER. In this review, we introduce the peculiarities of Te element, summarize Te doping and the extraordinary performance of its compounds in OER, with emphasis on the scientific mechanism behind Te element promoting the OER kinetic process. Finally, challenges and development prospects of the applications of Te element in OER are presented.