An efficiently tuned d-orbital occupation of IrO2by doping with Cu for enhancing the oxygen evolution reaction activity

Key Points

• To investigate how copper doping modulates the d-orbital electronic states of iridium dioxide to enhance oxygen evolution reaction catalytic activity.
• Synthesized copper-doped iridium dioxide catalysts to adjust iridium orbital configurations.
• Evaluated electrocatalytic performance for the oxygen evolution reaction across modified transition metal oxide structures.
• Copper incorporation successfully tuned the d-orbital electron occupation of iridium active sites.
• Modulation of orbital states enhanced catalytic activity for the oxygen evolution reaction relative to unmodified iridium dioxide.