Rationally designed Water-Insertable Layered Oxides with Synergistic Effect of Transition-Metal Elements for High-Performance Oxygen Evolution Reaction

Oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is a key step in many energy conversion and storage processes. Here, by rationally adding an appropriate amount of Mn into the lattice of a layered NaxCoO2 parent oxide, high solubility of iron into the NaxCoO2 oxide lattice is realized without the use of an extremely air-sensitive Na2O2 raw material, and the synergy created between the Co and Fe can boost the catalytic activity of the layered oxide for OER. Moreover, the water intercalation capability of the layered oxides can be utilized to make the oxide resemble mixed metal hydroxides, which will also bring a beneficial effect for OER. As a result, the as-developed Na0.67Mn0.5Co0.3Fe0.2O2 (CF-32) layered oxide with an optimal Co/Fe ratio and water intercalation shows high OER performance in alkaline media, overperforming the benchmark IrO2 catalyst. In 0.1 M KOH solution, the novel catalyst shows 0.39 V overpotential at 10 mA cm–2 and favorable stability. The excellent OER performance of CF-32 is due to the synergistic effect of transition-metal elements (Co and Fe) and water intercalation, leading to little charge transfer resistance, large amounts of exposed catalytic active sites, plenty of surface high oxidation state O22–/O– oxygen species, and hydroxide-rich surface. The facile synthesis and high OER performance of CF-32 enriches the non-noble metal family of OER catalysts and boosts the practical application of non-noble metal catalysts.