Electrochemical Generation of Mesopores and Residual Oxygen for the Enhanced Activity of Silver Electrocatalysts

The development of stable and efficient electrocatalysts is of key importance for the establishment of a sustainable society. The activity of a metal electrocatalyst is determined by its electrochemically active surface area and intrinsic activity, which can be increased using highly porous structures and heteroatomic doping, respectively. Herein, we propose a general strategy of generating mesopores and residual oxygen in metal electrocatalysts by reduction of metastable metal oxides using Ag2O3 electrodeposited onto carbon paper as a model system and demonstrating that the obtained multipurpose porous Ag electrocatalyst has high activity for the electroreduction of O2 and CO2. The presence of mesopores and residual oxygen is confirmed by electrochemical and spectroscopic techniques, and quantum mechanical simulations prove the importance of residual oxygen for electrocatalytic activity enhancement. Thus, the adopted strategy is concluded to allow the synthesis of highly active metal catalysts with controlled mesoporosity and residual oxygen content.