p-p Orbital Coupling-Mediated Unoccupied State Population in Te-Doped NaNbO₃ Enables Optimized Oxygen Evolution...

The d-p hybridized Nb─O₃ sites in NaNbO₃ generate unoccupied states near the Fermi level, inducing negative self-adsorption and thermodynamic barriers in electrocatalytic water splitting. In this work, an innovative strategy is introduced by incorporating tellurium atoms into NaNbO₃, wherein the engineered p-p orbital coupling dynamically competes with the intrinsic d-p hybridization, thereby effectively modulating bulk charge delocalization. Remarkably, the p-p orbital coupling populates unoccupied states near the Fermi level, thereby optimizing the reaction pathway for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and synergistically enhancing the overall water splitting efficiency. Additionally, the incorporation of Te─O₃ sites modulates the intrinsic reactivity of NaNbO₃ and serves as supplementary catalytic active centers. The optimized electrocatalyst exhibits outstanding catalytic activity, achieving low overpotentials of 68.00 mV for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and 283.40 mV for the OER at a current density of 10 mA cm^-2, coupled with an efficient overall water splitting cell voltage of 1.65 V. Overall, the p-p orbital competition strategy effectively addresses the longstanding activity-stability trade-off in NaNbO₃ electrocatalysts by reconfiguring electron delocalization pathways, enhancing both active site accessibility and structural integrity, thereby bridging a critical performance gap in perovskite-based electrocatalysts for efficient overall water splitting.