Dynamic Promotion of the Oxygen Evolution Reaction via Programmable Metal Oxides

Hydrogen gas is a promising renewable energy storage medium when produced via water electrolysis, but this process is limited by the sluggish kinetics of the anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Herein, we used a microkinetic model to investigate promoting the OER using programmable oxide catalysts (i.e., forced catalyst dynamics). We found that programmable catalysts could increase current density at a fixed overpotential (100X to 600X over static rates) or reduce the overpotential required to reach a fixed current density of 10 mA/cm^2 (45 – 140% reduction vs. static). In our kinetic parameterization, the key parameters controlling the quality of the catalytic ratchet were the O*-to-OOH* and O*-to-OH* activation barriers. Our findings indicate that programmable catalysts may be a viable strategy for accelerating the OER or enabling lower-overpotential operation, but a more accurate kinetic parameterization is required for precise predictions of performance, ratchet quality, and resulting energy efficiency.