The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) plays a critical role in multiple energy conversion and storage applications. However, its sluggish kinetics usually results in large voltage polarization and unnecessary energy loss. Therefore, designing efficient catalysts that could facilitate this process has become an emerging topic. Here, we present a unique Pt-Cu core-shell nanostructure for catalyzing the nonaqueous OER. The catalysts were systematically investigated with comprehensive spectroscopic techniques, and applied in nonaqueous Li-O2 electrochemical cells, which exhibited dramatically reduced charging overpotential (<0.2 V). The superior performance is explained by the robust Cu(I) surface sites stabilized by the Pt core in the nanostructure. The insights into the catalytic mechanism of the unique Pt-Cu core-shell nanostructure gained in this work are expected to serve as a guide for future design of other nanostructured bimetallic OER catalysts.
Keywords: X-ray absorption spectroscopy; alloys; bimetallic catalysts; nanostructures; oxygen evolution reaction.