Xuelei Pan, Mengyu Yan, Qian Liu, Xunbiao Zhou, Xiaobin Liao, Congli Sun, Jiexin Zhu, Callum McAleese, Pierre Couture, Matthew K Sharpe, Richard Smith, Nianhua Peng, Jonathan England, Shik Chi Edman Tsang, Yunlong Zhao, Liqiang Mai
The discovery of Mn-Ca complex in photosystem II stimulates research of manganese-based catalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER). However, conventional chemical strategies face challenges in regulating the four electron-proton processes of OER. Herein, we investigate alpha-manganese dioxide (α-MnO2 ) with typical MnIV -O-MnIII -Hx O motifs as a model for adjusting proton coupling. We reveal that pre-equilibrium proton-coupled redox transition provides an adjustable energy profile for OER, paving the way for in-situ enhancing proton coupling through a new "reagent"- external electric field...
April 18, 2024: Nature Communications