Turning Electrocatalytic Activity Sites for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction on Brownmillerite to Oxyhydroxide

One of the major challenges that hinder the practical application of water electrolysis lies in the design of advanced electrocatalysts toward the anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER). In this work, a pure Co-based precatalyst of CoOOH/brownmillerite derived from the surface activation of brownmillerite by a surface acid etching method exhibits high activity and stable electrical properties toward the OER. Different from oxyhydroxide derived from in situ surface reconstruction during the electrochemical process, the growth of highly crystalline CoOOH from the brownmillerite surface enables rational control over the surface/bulk structure as well as the concentration of active sites, and this structure can be well maintained and serve as highly active sites. The catalyst shows a low overpotential of 320 mV to obtain 10 mA cm–2 and high stability in an alkaline electrolyte for the OER, which is comparable to the majority of Co-based electrocatalysts. Moreover, the appropriate interfacial interaction of the composite catalysts greatly contributes to the hydroxide insertion to improve water oxidation ability. This work proposes an effective strategy to develop high-performance metal oxide-based materials for the OER.