The cathodic material plays an essential role in oxygen reduction reaction for energy conversion and storage systems. Titanium dioxide, as a semiconductor material, is usually not recognized as an efficient oxygen reduction electrocatalyst owning to its low conductivity and poor reactivity. Here we demonstrate that nano-structured titanium dioxide, self-doped by oxygen vacancies and selectively exposed with the high-energy {001} facets, exhibits a surprisingly competitive oxygen reduction activity, excellent durability and superior tolerance to methanol. Combining the electrochemical tests with density-functional calculations, we elucidate the defect-centred oxygen reduction reaction mechanism for the superiority of the reductive {001}-TiO₂−x nanocrystals. Our findings may provide an opportunity to develop a simple, efficient, cost-effective and promising catalyst for oxygen reduction reaction in energy conversion and storage technologies.

Nature Communications 6, Article number: 8696 doi:10.1038/ncomms9696
Received 28 May 2015 Accepted 21 September 2015 Published 23 October 2015

http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/151023/ncomms9696/full/ncomms9696.html