Ultrahigh oxygen evolution reaction activity in Au doped co-based nanosheets

Oxygen evolution reaction (OER) has attracted enormous interest as a key process for water electrolysis over the past years. The advance of this process relies on an effective catalyst. Herein, we employed single-atom Au doped Co-based nanosheets (NSs) to theoretically and experimentally evaluate the OER activity and also the interaction between Co and Au. We reveal that Au-Co(OH)(2) NSs achieved a low overpotential of 0.26 V at 10 mA cm(-2). This extraordinary phenomenon presents an overall superior performance greater than state-of-the-art Co-based catalysts in a sequence of alpha-Co(OH)(2) < Co3O4 < CoOOH < Au-Co(OH)(2). With ab initio calculations and analysis in the specific Au-Co(OH)(2) configuration, we reveal that OER on highly active Au-Co(OH)(2) originates from lattice oxygen, which is different from the conventional adsorbate evolution scheme. Explicitly, the configuration of Au-Co(OH)(2) gives rise to oxygen non-bonding (O-NB) states and oxygen holes, allowing direct O-O bond formation by a couple of oxidized oxygen with oxygen holes, offering a high OER activity. This study provides new insights for elucidating the origins of activity and synthesizing efficient OER electrocatalysts.

Automated summary

The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) has been a focus of research in water electrolysis. In this study, the authors used single-atom Au doped Co-based nanosheets to evaluate the OER activity and the interaction between Co and Au. The results showed that Au-Co(OH)(2) nanosheets exhibited superior performance compared to state-of-the-art Co-based catalysts. The authors also provided new insights into the mechanisms of OER activity and the synthesis of efficient OER electrocatalysts.