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Updated: Sep 13, 2025

Hydrogen Production and Utilization in a Membrane Reactor
Published on: March 10, 2023
Heterointerface Anchored Ir with Localized Strong Orbital Coupling for Durable Proton Exchange Membrane Water
Jing Ni1,2, Zhaoping Shi1,2, Jingsen Bai1,2
1Laboratory of Advanced Power Sources, State Key Laboratory of Electroanalytic Chemistry, Jilin Province Key Laboratory of Low Carbon Chemistry Power Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, Jilin, 130022, P.R. China.
None:
The imperative to minimize iridium usage in proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE) process presents a pivotal challenge for hydrogen economy deployment, while inherent destabilization of iridium (Ir) active sites under corrosive operational conditions, originating from insufficient Ir bonding strength, remains a fundamental barrier. Here, we resolve this dilemma through heterointerface-engineered stabilization, where the strategically constructed Nb-TiO2 rutile/anatase heterophase homojunction stabilizes Ir sites with enhanced orbital overlap and intensified charge transfer. This atomic-scale anchoring mechanism, validated by operando characterization and theoretical calculations, strengthens Ir─Osupport bonding and optimizes *OOH adsorption energetics, thereby enabling concurrent activity-stability improvements. The resultant Ir@IrOx/m-Nb-TiO2 anode achieves exceptional PEMWE performance with ultralow loading (0.27 mgIr cm-2), requiring a low electrolysis voltage of 1.72 V to reach industrial current densities of 2 A cm-2, coupled with unprecedented durability with <1.7% voltage decay over 3000 h. This interface design philosophy establishes a general paradigm for developing active and stable supported electrocatalysts for PEMWE and beyond.
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