The oxygen evolution reaction that occurs during water oxidation is of considerable importance as an essential energy conversion reaction for rechargeable metal-air batteries and direct solar water splitting. Cost-efficient ABO₃ perovskites have been studied extensively because of their high activity for the oxygen evolution reaction; however, they lack stability, and an effective solution to this problem has not yet been demonstrated. Here we report that the Fe⁴⁺-based quadruple perovskite CaCu₃Fe₄O₁₂ has high activity, which is comparable to or exceeding those of state-of-the-art catalysts such as Ba_0.5Sr_0.5Co_0.8Fe_0.2O_3−δ and the gold standard RuO₂. The covalent bonding network incorporating multiple Cu²⁺ and Fe⁴⁺ transition metal ions significantly enhances the structural stability of CaCu₃Fe₄O₁₂, which is key to achieving highly active long-life catalysts.

Nature Communications 6, Article number: 8249 doi:10.1038/ncomms9249
Received 20 May 2015 Accepted 31 July 2015 Published 10 September 2015

http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/150910/ncomms9249/full/ncomms9249.html