Boron-doped amorphous iridium oxide with ultrahigh mass activity for acidic oxygen evolution reaction

Oxygen evolution reaction (OER), as the primary anodic reaction, plays a critical role in many electrochemical energy conversion processes. As state-of-the-art OER catalysts, iridium-based materials are largely hindered from practical applications mainly due to extreme scarcity of iridium. Here we demonstrate successful fabrication boron-doped amorphous iridium oxide (IrOx-B) via facile boric acid-assisted method, which realizes an ultrahigh mass activity 2779 A g Ir −1 at 300 mV overpotential, representing one best acidic catalysts reported so far. It is found that acid can not only facilitate exposure Ir, but also dope IrOx with form metaborate, could further modify electronic and local ligand structure for improved intrinsic activity. Interestingly, strategy universal be applied improve other metal highlighting versatile creating high-performance electro-catalysts beyond.