Dual-anion etching induced in situ interfacial engineering for high-efficiency oxygen evolution

Designing novel catalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) with high cost-effectiveness plays a central role in sustainably driving renewable energy conversion and storage. Here we demonstrate the in situ interfacial engineering for constructing efficient OER catalysts based on the electrochemical dual-anion etching of natural arsenopyrite. The OER catalyst (FeAsS) prepared from natural arsenopyrite via an environment-friendly ball milling approach achieves a current density of 10 mA cm−2 at an overpotential of 200 mV, outperforming many state-of-the-art catalysts. The in-depth study indicates that the co-etching of lattice As and S under the OER conditions triggers the in situ surface self-reconstruction, and a self-optimized catalytic active and stable FeAsS/α-FeOOH interface has been developed. Computational studies further confirm that the strong electronic coupling effect between α-FeOOH and FeAsS significantly tunes the binding energy between reaction intermediates and active sites, finally leading to an enhanced OER activity. The dual-anion etching of precatalysts induced in situ interfacial engineering demonstrated here expands the way of exploring other multiple nonmetallic elements involved nanomaterials as efficient OER precatalysts. This study also stimulates further study on the eco-design of electroactive materials for advanced energy conversion/storage applications from earth-abundance natural resources.