Progress and challenges pertaining to the earthly-abundant electrocatalytic materials for oxygen evolution reaction

The scarcity and high cost of commercial noble metal-based materials necessitate the need for synthesizing alternative electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Many efforts put in place in addressing this problem have resulted in huge successes by employing different routes for synthesizing electrocatalysts, using different families of atoms and compounds. In this regard, this review describes the conceptual study of OER and an overview of electrocatalytic kinetics and theoretical modeling for oxygen evolution reaction. For in-depth understanding, a comprehensive and general overview of the recent developments in the OER electrocatalysts and efficient methods of testing the stabilities of catalysts to obtain reliable results are given. The study also includes some tutorial manuals for describing various parameters needed in electrochemical OER processes. We do hope they will be the useful guiding principles for the newcomers in this field. Interestingly, the emphasis is focused on describing different families of compounds used to synthesize high-performance OER electrocatalysts: which include transition metal compounds, polyoxometalates, carbon nanotubes, single atoms, layered double hydroxide, and non-metal compounds. Conclusively, important future perspectives to foster the advancement of this field are discussed.