Single-atom catalysts for oxygen evolution reaction in acidic media

Abstract

The use of single-atom catalysts (SACs) for acidic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is an emerging field of research with prospects to maximize the dispersion of active sites and the metal utilization. Therefore, it is promising for reducing the amount of noble metal needed to efficiently electrocatalyze the OER. The objective is to achieve comparable activity for conventionally unsupported and supported iridium and ruthenium oxide catalysts but with significantly lower loading of precious metal. The present review summarizes the recent progress in this field, discussing the preparation of such materials, the structural characterization techniques suited to probe single metal atoms as well as the hitherto achieved activity and stability in acidic OER conditions. We conclude the short review with a summary of the main observations and perspectives for this class of materials.