Defect engineering for surface reconstruction of metal oxide catalysts during OER

The development of electrochemical processes, such as water electrolysis for hydrogen production and rechargeable metal-air batteries, offers promising solutions to the energy crisis and environmental pollution. However, challenges like sluggish oxygen evolution reaction (OER) kinetics, high costs of precious metal catalysts, and scarce active sites in transition metal oxides hinder large-scale commercial applications. Defect engineering has emerged as a promising strategy to optimize transition metal oxides by improving their electronic structure, conductivity, and active site availability. Early research focused on static thermodynamic parameters, such as impedance, overpotential, and band gap, neglecting dynamic factors like catalyst surface restructuring and mechanism transformation during reactions. This perspective highlights the intrinsic connection between defect structures, catalyst surface reconstruction, and reaction mechanisms. It also discusses the need for advanced experimental and theoretical computational studies to better understand the surface evolution of catalysts during OERs.