Abstract
Dynamic reconstruction of metal sulphides during electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) has hampered the acquisition of legible evidence for comprehensively understanding the phase-transition mechanism and electrocatalytic activity origin. Herein, modelling on a series of cobalt-nickel bimetallic sulphides, we for the first time establish an explicit and comprehensive picture of their dynamic phase evaluation pathway at the pre-catalytic stage before OER process. By utilizing the in-situ electrochemical transmission electron microscopy and electron energy loss spectroscopy, the lattice sulphur atoms of (NiCo)S1.33 particles are revealed to be partially substituted by oxygen from electrolyte to form a lattice oxygen-sulphur coexisting shell surface before the generation of reconstituted active species. Such S-O exchange process is benefitted from the subtle modulation of metal-sulphur coordination form caused by the specific Ni and Co occupation. This unique oxygen-substitution behaviour produces an (NiCo)OxS1.33-x surface to reduce the energy barrier of surface reconstruction for converting sulphides into active oxy/hydroxide derivative, therefore significantly increasing the proportion of lattice oxygen-mediated mechanism compared to the pure sulphide surface. We anticipate this direct observation can provide an explicit picture of catalysts’ structural and compositional evolution during the electrocatalytic process.
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