The development of electrochemical processes, such as water electrolysis for hydrogen production and rechargeable metal-air batteries, offers promising solutions to the energy crisis and environmental pollution. However, challenges like sluggish oxygen evolution reaction (OER) kinetics, high costs of precious metal catalysts, and scarce active sites in transition metal oxides hinder large-scale commercial applications. Defect engineering has emerged as a promising strategy to optimize transition metal oxides by improving their electronic structure, conductivity, and active site availability. Early research focused on static thermodynamic parameters, such as impedance, overpotential, and band gap, neglecting dynamic factors like catalyst surface restructuring and mechanism transformation during reactions. This perspective highlights the intrinsic connection between defect structures, catalyst surface reconstruction, and reaction mechanisms. It also discusses the need for advanced experimental and theoretical computational studies to better understand the surface evolution of catalysts during OERs.

中文翻译：

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OER 过程中金属氧化物催化剂表面重构的缺陷工程


电化学工艺的发展，例如用于制氢的水电解和可充电金属空气电池，为能源危机和环境污染提供了有希望的解决方案。然而，析氧反应 （OER） 动力学缓慢、贵金属催化剂成本高以及过渡金属氧化物活性位点稀缺等挑战阻碍了大规模商业应用。缺陷工程已成为一种很有前途的策略，可以通过改善过渡金属氧化物的电子结构、导电性和活性位点可用性来优化过渡金属氧化物。早期研究侧重于静态热力学参数，例如阻抗、过电位和带隙，而忽略了反应过程中催化剂表面重组和机理转变等动态因素。该视角突出了缺陷结构、催化剂表面重建和反应机理之间的内在联系。它还讨论了进行高级实验和理论计算研究的必要性，以更好地了解 OER 期间催化剂的表面演变。