Publication

Abstract : The huge requirement of oxygen in the current pandemic situation highlights the urgency of industrially relevant electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction and the need of this discussion. OER (oxygen evolution reaction) is an extremely important research field in electrochemistry, and several OER catalysts are investigated in order to reduce overpotential and to improve their catalytic activity. Transition metal oxides have so much of attention as potential catalysts for OER because of their excellent catalytic activity and affordable cost. Introduction of various forms of defects can significantly alter the structural characteristics of TMOs (transition metal oxides). Focusing on this point, the current review critically analyse all the types of defect, point defects, line defects and plane defects, which play a significant role in enhancing the activity of catalyst. Defect engineering strategies and the mechanisms by which these defect centers will boost the activity of the catalyst is also demonstrated with high priority in view of the last five years scientific reports, while not at all ignored the previous history. Apart from the advancements in the field the core science behind electrocatalytic OER in acidic, basic as well as neutral medium, characteristics of an OER electrocatalyst, expressions for evaluating catalyst activity measures and various strategies in use for boosting the efficiency of TMOs towards OER, were also discussed in depth. As the last section, challenges associated with defect engineering and the most advanced solutions identified from the literature to overcome the restrictions are also consolidated in view of its significance in active catalyst designing.