Progress in In Situ Research on Dynamic Surface Reconstruction of Electrocatalysts for Oxygen Evolution Reaction

Abstract

Renewable energy and sustainable development have attracted considerable attention due to the rapid growth of energy consumption and environmental pollution. The further development of electrocatalytic water splitting can promote the development and application of next-generation sustainable energy systems. However, the lack of an in-depth understanding of the dynamic restructuring process occurring on the catalyst surface in the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) has limited the further development and improvement of OER-related theories. Therefore, real-time monitoring and analysis of the dynamic surface reconstruction process has a great significance for deeply understanding the intrinsic catalytic mechanism of OER. Herein, the latest progress on the in situ methods for characterizing the surface reconstruction of various transition metal-based OER electrocatalysts in recent years is summarized. Many commonly methods used in situ characterization techniques have been reviewed to reveal the correlation between structure, surface reconstruction, and intrinsic activity.