The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is a key half-reaction involved in many important electrochemical reactions, but this process is quite sluggish and the materials needed usually show unsatisfactory activity, stability or corrosion resistance in the harsh electrocatalysis environment. Here we report an effective boronization strategy for the value-added transformation of inexpensive, commercially available metal sheets (Ni, Co, Fe, NiFe alloys and steel sheets) into highly active and stable, corrosion resistant oxygen evolution electrodes. The boronized metal sheets exhibit OER activities that are an order of magnitude higher than those of the corresponding metal sheets, and show significantly improved catalytic stability and corrosion resistance in the operating environment. The in situ formed, ultrathin (2–5 nm), metaborate-containing oxyhydroxide thin films on metal boride surfaces are identified as a self-functionalized, highly active catalytic phase for the OER. In particular, a boronized NiFe alloy sheet is demonstrated to exhibit intrinsic catalytic activity higher than those of the state-of-the-art materials in 1 M KOH, while retaining such catalytic activity for over 3000 hours. Additionally, the boronized NiFe alloy and steel sheets are also demonstrated to have good catalytic activity as well as excellent catalytic stability and corrosion resistance in 30% KOH solution, a widely-adopted electrolyte in commercial water–alkali electrolyzers.

中文翻译：

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具有自功能化表面的镀硼金属薄板进行高性能的析氧电催化†

放氧反应（OER）是许多重要的电化学反应中涉及的关键半反应，但是该过程反应缓慢，在恶劣的电催化环境中所需的材料通常显示出不令人满意的活性，稳定性或耐腐蚀性。在这里，我们报告了一种有效的硼化策略，用于将廉价的市售金属薄板（Ni，Co，Fe，NiFe合金和钢板）增值转化为高活性和稳定，耐腐蚀的析氧电极。硼化金属板的OER活性比相应金属板的OER活性高一个数量级，并且在操作环境中显示出显着改善的催化稳定性和耐腐蚀性。在原位在金属硼化物表面上形成的超薄（2–5 nm）含偏硼酸盐的羟基氧化物薄膜被认为是OER的自官能化，高活性催化相。特别地，证明了硼化的NiFe合金板在1M KOH中表现出比最先进的材料更高的固有催化活性，同时保持这种催化活性超过3000小时。此外，还证明了硼化的NiFe合金和钢板在30％KOH溶液中具有良好的催化活性以及出色的催化稳定性和耐腐蚀性，KOH溶液是商用水碱性电解器中广泛采用的电解质。