Transition metal selenites are promising in catalytic field, but their oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performance and the corresponding catalysis mechanism has rarely been reported. Here, we report a vacancy-boosting strategy to realize enhanced activity in a library of novel selenite electrocatalysts. Unexpectedly, we found that all Fe-based sample of this series delivers amorphous structure with rich oxygen/selenium vacancies compared to their crystalline counterparts. Consequently, the amorphous Ni₁Fe₁SeO sample displays outstanding OER activity with an overpotential of 257 mV at 10 mA cm⁻², low Tafel slop of 34 mV·dec⁻¹ and excellent stability. X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES), electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) characterizations and density functional theory (DFT) calculation reveal the amorphous structure with abundant oxygen/selenium vacancies drastically decreases the energy barrier during the OER process. Our study provides a library of novel OER electrocatalysts from amorphous metal selenites with superior activity through the vacancy-boosting strategy.

过渡金属亚硒酸盐在催化领域很有前途，但很少报道其氧释放反应（OER）性能和相应的催化机理。在这里，我们报告了一种新型的亚硒酸盐电催化剂库中实现增强活性的空位增强策略。出乎意料的是，我们发现与该晶体对应物相比，该系列所有基于Fe的样品都具有无定形结构，具有丰富的氧/硒空位。因此，非晶态Ni ₁ Fe ₁ SeO样品显示出出色的OER活性，在10 mA cm ^-2下的过电势为257 mV ，低Tafel斜率为34 mV·dec ^-1和出色的稳定性。X射线吸收近边缘结构（XANES），电子顺磁共振（EPR）表征和密度泛函理论（DFT）计算表明，具有大量氧/硒空位的非晶态结构大大降低了OER过程中的能垒。我们的研究提供了一种新型的OER电催化剂库，该催化剂由无定形金属亚硒酸盐通过空位增强策略具有优异的活性。