Iridium-incorporated Co3O4 with lattice expansion for energy-efficient green hydrogen production coupled with glycerol valorization

Abstract

The iridium-incorporated Co₃O₄ (Ir-Co₃O₄) catalyst is obtained from binary CoIr-based metal–organic framework precursors via controlled calcination treatment. Structural characterization reveals that in situ incorporation of Ir cations can cause lattice expansion of Co₃O₄ and regulate its electronic structure, thus in turn favoring electrocatalytic performance improvement. With a lattice expansion-induced strain effect, the Ir-Co₃O₄ catalyst shows superior performance for both electrocatalytic glycerol-to-formate conversion and the hydrogen evolution reaction.