Striking Stabilization Effect of Spinel Cobalt Oxide Oxygen Evolution Electrocatalysts in Neutral pH by Dual-Sites Iron Incorporation

Abstract

Developing stable and efficient nonprecious-metal-based oxygen evolution catalysts in the neutral electrolyte is a challenging but essential goal for various electrochemical systems. Particularly, cobalt-based spinels have drawn a considerable amount of attention but most of them operate in alkali solutions. However, the frequently studied Co-Fe spinel system never exhibits appreciable stability in nonbasic conditions, not to mention attract further investigation on its key structural motif and transition states for activity loss. Herein, we report exceptional stable Co-Fe spinel oxygen evolution catalysts (~30% Fe is optimal) in a neutral electrolyte, owing to its unique metal ion arrangements in the crystal lattice. The introduced iron content enters both the octahedral and tetrahedral sites of the spinel as Fe²⁺ and Fe³⁺ (with Co ions having mixed distribution as well). Combining density functional theory calculations, we find that the introduction of Fe to Co₃O₄ lowers the covalency of metal-oxygen bonds and can help suppress the oxidation of Co^2+/3+ and O^2-. It implies that the Co-Fe spinel will have minor surface reconstruction and less lattice oxygen loss during the oxygen evolution reaction process in comparison with Co₃O₄ and hence show much better stability. These findings suggest that there is still much chance for the spinel structures, especially using reasonable sublattices engineering via multimetal doping to develop advanced oxygen evolution catalysts.

Keywords

dual-sites iron / electrocatalyst stability / neutral electrolyte / oxygen evolution reaction / spinel oxides

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