Strained Ultralong Silver Nanowires for Enhanced Electrocatalytic Oxygen Reduction Reaction in Alkaline Medium

Many noble metals are efficient catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), including silver (Ag). Among all these noble metals, Ag is the most affordable because of its relative abundance. Surface energy has been proven to play a crucial role in the catalytic process, and straining is an effective operation to raise the surface energy over electrocatalysts. In this work, sonication was utilized to induce strain in Ag nanowires (NWs) through lattice deformation. A 0.18 J/m² improvement of the surface energy around the stacking faults area has been calculated via density functional theory. The diffusion-limiting current density was evaluated and increases by >20% (from -4.98 to -6.00 mA/cm²) after sonication straining. Meanwhile, the onset potential remains almost constant (i.e., 0.95 V vs RHE). The results show that induction of strain has a strong impact on the diffusion-limiting current density and significantly improves the ORR catalytic performance of Ag NWs.