Amorphous High-entropy Non-precious metal oxides with surface reconstruction toward highly efficient and durable catalyst for oxygen evolution reaction

Abstract

High-entropy materials (HEMs) have attracted extensive interests in exploring multicomponent systems for highly efficient and durable catalysts. Tuning composition and configuration of HEMs provides untapped opportunities for accessing better catalytic performance. Herein, we report three amorphous high-entropy transition metal oxides catalysts with uniform composition through a simple and controllable liquid phase non-equilibrium reduction method. The self-made catalyst FeCoNiMnBOx exhibits excellent oxygen evolution performance, including a low overpotential (266 mV at 10 mA cm−2), small Tafel slope (64.5 mV dec-1) and extremely high stability (only 3.71% increase of potential after 100 h test and no current decay after cyclic voltammetry of 31,000 cycles). The outstanding performance can be attributed to the in-situ electrochemical activation induced surface reconstruction to form a stable oxyhydroxide surface layer, the cocktail effect (multi-metal synergy) brought by high entropy, and the advantages of amorphous structure itself. The outstanding catalytic properties of the new high-entropy amorphous metal oxide, as well as its advantages of low cost and simple preparation, suggest its great potential in water splitting.