Unveiling the Potential-Independent Regime: Doping-Driven Switchable HER on Transition Metal Oxides

Kucukosman et al. (2023) observed a surprising “potential-independent” regime for HER on red-phosphorus doped WO3, where, beyond a critical hydrogen intercalation level, HER kinetics become decoupled from applied potential. This is a radical departure from classical Tafel/Butler-Volmer models! My research would systematically dope TMOs (WO3, MoO3, etc.) with a series of heteroatoms (P, N, S, alkali metals), using both experimental (operando spectroscopies, electrochemical impedance) and computational (DFT, ab initio MD) methods to map out the emergence and tunability of this regime. By correlating bulk and surface intercalation phenomena with catalytic activity, we could design catalysts that “switch on” or “off” HER (or other reduction reactions) under precise electrochemical conditions—potentially enabling new strategies for selective or multi-functional electrocatalysts, including suppression of parasitic reactions in energy devices.

References:

1. Unexpected Potential Dependent HER Behaviors of Cationic Phosphorus Doped WO3 Nanosheets. Oguz Kaan Kucukosman, Qingquan Ma, Joshua Young, Wen Zhang, Huixin He (2023). ECS Meeting Abstracts.