Amorphous High-entropy Non-precious metal oxides with surface reconstruction toward highly efficient and durable catalyst for oxygen evolution reaction

Shunda Jiang; Kanghui Tian; Xinglong Li; ChanQin Duan; Dan Wang; Zhiyuan Wang; Hongyu Sun; Runguo Zheng; Yanguo Liu

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2021.08.060

Amorphous High-entropy Non-precious metal oxides with surface reconstruction toward highly efficient and durable catalyst for oxygen evolution reaction

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2022 Jan 15;606(Pt 1):635-644. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2021.08.060. Epub 2021 Aug 11.

Authors

Shunda Jiang¹, Kanghui Tian¹, Xinglong Li¹, ChanQin Duan¹, Dan Wang², Zhiyuan Wang³, Hongyu Sun⁴, Runguo Zheng², Yanguo Liu⁵

Affiliations

¹ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China.
² School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China; School of Resources and Materials, Northeastern University at Qinhuangdao, Qinhuangdao 066004, China; Key Laboratory of Dielectric and Electrolyte Functional Material Hebei Province, Qinhuangdao, China.
³ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China; School of Resources and Materials, Northeastern University at Qinhuangdao, Qinhuangdao 066004, China; Key Laboratory of Dielectric and Electrolyte Functional Material Hebei Province, Qinhuangdao, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁴ School of Resources and Materials, Northeastern University at Qinhuangdao, Qinhuangdao 066004, China.
⁵ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China; School of Resources and Materials, Northeastern University at Qinhuangdao, Qinhuangdao 066004, China; Key Laboratory of Dielectric and Electrolyte Functional Material Hebei Province, Qinhuangdao, China. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 34416456
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2021.08.060

Abstract

High-entropy materials (HEMs) have attracted extensive interests in exploring multicomponent systems for highly efficient and durable catalysts. Tuning composition and configuration of HEMs provides untapped opportunities for accessing better catalytic performance. Herein, we report three amorphous high-entropy transition metal oxides catalysts with uniform composition through a simple and controllable liquid phase non-equilibrium reduction method. The self-made catalyst FeCoNiMnBO_x exhibits excellent oxygen evolution performance, including a low overpotential (266 mV at 10 mA cm^-2), small Tafel slope (64.5 mV dec^-1) and extremely high stability (only 3.71% increase of potential after 100 h test and no current decay after cyclic voltammetry of 31,000 cycles). The outstanding performance can be attributed to the in-situ electrochemical activation induced surface reconstruction to form a stable oxyhydroxide surface layer, the cocktail effect (multi-metal synergy) brought by high entropy, and the advantages of amorphous structure itself. The outstanding catalytic properties of the new high-entropy amorphous metal oxide, as well as its advantages of low cost and simple preparation, suggest its great potential in water splitting.

Keywords: Amorphous metal oxides; High entropy; Oxygen evolution reaction; Surface reconstruction.