Asymmetric Active Sites for Boosting Oxygen Evolution Reaction

Transition metal-nitrogen-carbon materials with atomically dispersed active sites are promising catalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) since they combine the strengths of both homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts. However, the canonically symmetric active site usually exhibits poor OER intrinsic activity due to its excessively strong or weak oxygen species adsorption. Here, a catalyst with asymmetric MN₄ sites based on the 3-s-triazine of g-C₃N₄ (termed as a-MN₄@NC) is proposed. Compared to symmetric, the asymmetric active sites directly modulate the oxygen species adsorption via unifying planar and axial orbitals (dx²-y², dz²), thus enabling higher OER intrinsic activity. In Silico screening suggested that cobalt has the best OER activity among familiar nonprecious transition metal. These experimental results suggest that the intrinsic activity of asymmetric active sites (179 mV overpotential at onset potential) is enhanced by 48.4% compared to symmetric under similar conditions. Remarkably, a-CoN₄@NC showed excellent activity in alkaline water electrolyzer (AWE) device as OER catalyst, the electrolyzer only required 1.7 V and 2.1 V respectively to reach the current density of 150 mA cm⁻² and 500 mA cm⁻². This work opens an avenue for modulating the active sites to obtain high intrinsic electrocatalytic performance including, but not limited to, OER.