Template-assisted strategy for synthesizing transition metal oxyhydroxide for high-efficiency oxygen evolution reaction

Abstract

Oxyhydroxides have been widely recognized as the true active species for oxygen evolution reaction (OER), while most of them are created via the complicated and time-consuming electrochemical activation process. Here, we develop a facile template-mediated method for directly synthesizing highly active oxyhydroxides toward OER. The optimal FeCoOOH prepared via using Cu2O as a sacrificial template could exhibit outstanding electrocatalytic OER performance, delivering a current density of 10 mA cm−2 with the overpotential of merely 320 mV, and a corresponding Tafel slope of 77.5 mV dec−1. Detailed mechanism study outlines that the extraordinary OER performance of such FeCoOOH originated from the intrinsically high OER activity of oxyhydroxide and the high specific surface area of the particular architecture. This work demonstrates a simple and direct route for the successful fabrication of highly active oxyhydroxides, which may open a new way for the synthesis of other active species.