The surface charge induced high activity of oxygen reduction reaction on the PdTe₂ bilayer

Developing transition metal dichalcogenides as electrocatalysts has attracted great interest due to their tunable electronic properties and good thermal stabilities. Herein, we propose a PdTe₂ bilayer as a promising electrocatalyst candidate towards the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), based on extensive investigation of the electronic properties of PdTe₂ thin films as well as atomic-level reaction kinetics at explicit electrode potentials. We verify that under electrochemical reducing conditions, the electron emerging on the electrode surface is directly transferred to O₂ adsorbed on the PdTe₂ bilayer, which greatly reduces the dissociation barrier of O₂, and thereby facilitates the ORR to proceed via a dissociative pathway. Moreover, the barriers of the electrochemical steps in this pathway are all found to be less than 0.1 eV at the ORR limiting potential, demonstrating fast ORR kinetics at ambient conditions. This unique mechanism offers excellent energy efficiency and four-electron selectivity for the PdTe₂ bilayer, and it is identified as a promising candidate for fuel cell applications.