Enhanced oxygen evolution over dual corner-shared cobalt tetrahedra

Yubo Chen, Joon Kyo Seo, Yuanmiao Sun, Thomas A. Wynn, Marco Olguin, Minghao Zhang, Jingxian Wang, Shibo Xi, Yonghua Du, Kaidi Yuan, Wei Chen, Adrian C. Fisher, Maoyu Wang, Zhenxing Feng, Jose Gracia, Li Huang, Shixuan Du, Hong-Jun Gao, Ying Shirley Meng () and Zhichuan J. Xu ()
Additional contact information
Yubo Chen: Nanyang Technological University
Joon Kyo Seo: University of California San Diego
Yuanmiao Sun: Nanyang Technological University
Thomas A. Wynn: University of California San Diego
Marco Olguin: University of California San Diego
Minghao Zhang: University of California San Diego
Jingxian Wang: Nanyang Technological University
Shibo Xi: Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences, A*STAR
Yonghua Du: Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences, A*STAR
Kaidi Yuan: National University of Singapore
Wei Chen: National University of Singapore
Adrian C. Fisher: The Cambridge Centre for Advanced Research and Education in Singapore
Maoyu Wang: Oregon State University
Zhenxing Feng: Oregon State University
Jose Gracia: MagnetoCat SL, General Polavieja 9 3I
Li Huang: Chinese Academy of Science
Shixuan Du: Chinese Academy of Science
Hong-Jun Gao: Chinese Academy of Science
Ying Shirley Meng: University of California San Diego
Zhichuan J. Xu: Nanyang Technological University

Nature Communications, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Developing efficient catalysts is of paramount importance to oxygen evolution, a sluggish anodic reaction that provides essential electrons and protons for various electrochemical processes, such as hydrogen generation. Here, we report that the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) can be efficiently catalyzed by cobalt tetrahedra, which are stabilized over the surface of a Swedenborgite-type YBCo4O7 material. We reveal that the surface of YBaCo4O7 possesses strong resilience towards structural amorphization during OER, which originates from its distinctive structural evolution toward electrochemical oxidation. The bulk of YBaCo4O7 composes of corner-sharing only CoO4 tetrahedra, which can flexibly alter their positions to accommodate the insertion of interstitial oxygen ions and mediate the stress during the electrochemical oxidation. The density functional theory calculations demonstrate that the OER is efficiently catalyzed by a binuclear active site of dual corner-shared cobalt tetrahedra, which have a coordination number switching between 3 and 4 during the reaction. We expect that the reported active structural motif of dual corner-shared cobalt tetrahedra in this study could enable further development of compounds for catalyzing the OER.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-33000-w

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