The oxygen deficiencies are key active sites in electrocatalysis oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Prof. Yi Xie from DICP synthesized a series of spinel-structured nanosheets with different oxygen deficiencies through topochemical transformations method. The role of oxygen deficiencies in OER were also investigated by using these catalysts.

Through experimental and theoretical exploration, the significant effect of oxygen deficiency ultrathin nanosheets in OER have been successfully proved. The ultrathin nanosheets rich in oxygen deficiencies exhibited a large current density and a small overpotential, both of which are superior to the corresponding values of bulk samples or samples with few oxygen deficiencies and even higher than those of most reported non-precious-metal catalysts. This work will provide a new pathway for the design of advanced OER catalysts, which was published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. and selected as “Hot Paper.”

The research was funded by Ministry of Science and Technology and Natural Science Foundation of China.

(Ultrathin spinel-structured nanosheets with rich oxygen deficiencies for enhanced electrocatalytic water oxidation, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2015,DOI:10.1002/anie.201502226）