Abstract
The activities of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) on IrO2 and RuO2 catalysts are among the highest known to date. However, the intrinsic OER activities of surfaces with defined crystallographic orientations are not well established experimentally. Here we report that the (100) surface of IrO2 and RuO2 is more active than the (110) surface that has been traditionally explored by density functional theory studies. The relation between the OER activity and density of coordinatively undersaturated metal sites exposed on each rutile crystallographic facet is discussed. The surface-orientation dependent activities can guide the design of high-surface-area catalysts with increased activity for electrolyzers, metal-air batteries, and photoelectrochemical water splitting applications.
