Cost efficient and long-term stable catalysts are in great demand for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), a key process involved in water splitting cells and metal–air batteries. Here, we demonstrate that the ultrathin amorphous cobalt–vanadium hydr(oxy)oxide we synthesized is a highly promising electrocatalytic material for the OER with a low overpotential of 0.250 V (even lower down to 0.215 V when supported on Au foam) at 10 mA cm⁻² and a long stable operation time (170 h) in alkaline media. In combination with in situ X-ray absorption spectral characterization and first-principles simulations, we reveal that the ultrathin, amorphous and alloyed structural characteristics have enabled its facile transformation to the desirable active phase, leading to a dramatically enhanced catalytic activity. Our finding highlights the remarkable advantages of the two-dimensional amorphous material and sheds new light on the design of high-performance electrocatalysts.

中文翻译：

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超薄无定形钴氧钒氧化钒催化剂，用于氧气释放反应†

具有成本效益和长期稳定的催化剂对氧气析出反应（OER）有着巨大的需求，氧气析出反应是水分离电池和金属空气电池所涉及的关键过程。在这里，我们证明了我们合成的超薄无定形钴-氢氧化氧钒钒是一种极有希望的OER电催化材料，在10 mA时具有0.250 V的低过电势（当负载在Au泡沫上时甚至更低，甚至低至0.215 V） cm ^-2，在碱性介质中稳定的工作时间长（170 h）。与原位结合X射线吸收光谱表征和第一性原理模拟表明，超薄，无定形和合金结构特征使其能够轻松转变为所需的活性相，从而大大提高了催化活性。我们的发现突出了二维无定形材料的显着优势，并为高性能电催化剂的设计提供了新的思路。