Enhanced electrocatalytic oxygen evolution activity in geometrically designed SrRuO3 thin films

• Published in: Applied surface science Vol. 529; p. 147065
• Main Authors: Biswas, Abhijit, Shiva Shanker, G., Das, Tisita, Mandal, Rajesh, Chakraborty, Sudip, Ogale, Satishchandra
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.11.2020
• Subjects: Density functional theory; Electrocatalytic activity; Geometrically designed surface; Oxide thin films; Surface termination; Oxide thin films; Surface termination; Density functional theory; Electrocatalytic activity; Geometrically designed surface
• ISSN: 0169-4332; 1873-5584
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apsusc.2020.147065

Geometrically engineered surface of epitaxial SrRuO3 film shows remarkable enhancement in alkaline electrocatalytic OER activity with the significant reduction in overpotential, as a combined consequences of polar surface termination and presence of active sites. [Display omitted] •Substrate facet dependent electrocatalytic oxygen evolution activity in thin films.•Enhanced oxygen evolution reaction activity due to the incorporation of active sites.•Geometrically designed films show significant reduction in overpotential.•Density functional theory supports the enhancement due to the favorable energetic reaction pathway. For generation of sustainable, clean and highly efficient energy, the electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction represents an attractive platform, thus inviting immense research activities in recent years. However, designing the catalyst with enhanced electrocatalytic activity remains one of the major challenges. Here, we examined the oxygen evolution reaction activities of geometrically designed (with and without step-textured morphology) thin films of an electrocatalytically active correlated metallic SrRuO3 perovskite grown on c- and r-plane sapphire substrates. On c-plane sapphire, as compared to the uniform surface, the step-textured films endowed with active Ru-sites show remarkable decrease in the overpotential (~25 mV). Interestingly, the behavior is opposite for the r-plane case, highlighting the significance of the active sites, in addition with the polar surface termination of selective crystal facets. Density functional theory calculation confirms the favorable energy reaction pathway for the active site dependent enhancement in OER. Our strategy might pave the way towards designing the surfaces of various oxide thin films for high performance energy conversion based devices.