Nd–IrO2: High-performance electrocatalyst for enhanced overall water splitting in acidic media

Water electrolysis is one of the most promising green hydrogen production technologies. However, using precious metal materials as electrodes for these electrolyzers incurs high costs. To address these challenges and simultaneously retain the catalytic activity of precious metals, we synthesize a low-iridium catalyst, Nd–IrO 2 . At 10 and -10 mA/cm 2 , this catalyst exhibits 233 and 36 mV overpotentials. Nd – IrO 2 maintains stability over prolonged operation in acidic environments, as evidenced by its consistent overpotential. Advanced calculations using density functional theory (DFT) have demonstrated that incorporating Nd and an ample amount of oxygen vacancies can modulate the d-band center of Ir and reduce the adsorption energy of electrochemical reaction intermediates. In summary, we present the synthesis of a low-iridium catalyst, which provides valuable insights for the design and development of catalysts with improved electrocatalytic performance.