Achieving delafossite analog by in situ electrochemical self-reconstruction as an oxygen-evolving catalyst
Juzhe Liu, Qi Hu, Yu Wang, Zhao Yang, Xiaoyu Fan, Li-Min Liu, Lin Guo
Abstract
Significance Electrochemical water splitting to generate hydrogen and oxygen is proposed as a promising way for building a clean-energy future. One of the challenges facing this scenario is to develop robust electrocatalysts, especially for the kinetically sluggish oxygen evolution reaction (OER) process. In this work, the delafossite analog was proposed by mutation of metal oxyhydroxides and delafossite. We have experimentally realized the delafossite analog by intercalation of Ag into cobalt–iron (oxyhydr)oxide layers via electrochemical self-reconstruction (ECSR). The delafossite analog exhibits enhanced OER activity and outstanding stability. Our findings demonstrate that in situ ECSR can be an effective approach to construct new types of catalysts. Our advances on delafossite analogs pave the vital way for a class of promising electrochemical catalysts.