title: Electrochemical tuning of layered lithium transition metal oxides for improvement of oxygen evolution reaction.
abstract: Searching for low-cost and efficient catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction has been actively pursued owing to its importance in clean energy generation and storage. While developing new catalysts is important, tuning the electronic structure of existing catalysts over a wide electrochemical potential range can also offer a new direction. Here we demonstrate a method for electrochemical lithium tuning of catalytic materials in organic electrolyte for subsequent enhancement of the catalytic activity in aqueous solution. By continuously extracting lithium ions out of LiCoO2, a popular cathode material in lithium ion batteries, to Li0.5CoO2 in organic electrolyte, the catalytic activity is significantly improved. This enhancement is ascribed to the unique electronic structure after the delithiation process. The general efficacy of this methodology is demonstrated in several mixed metal oxides with similar improvements. The electrochemically delithiated LiCo0.33Ni0.33Fe0.33O2 exhibits a notable performance, better than the benchmark iridium/carbon catalyst.
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Material Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA [2] State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China [3].
authors.forename: Zhiyi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Applied Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA [2].
authors.forename: Haotian
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Material Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
authors.forename: Desheng
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kong
authors.affiliation: Department of Material Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: Department of Material Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
authors.forename: Po-Chun
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
authors.forename: Guangyuan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Material Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
authors.forename: Hongbin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.affiliation: Department of Material Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
authors.forename: Zheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoming
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Material Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA [2] Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Science, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cui