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Wenbo Liu, Zhipeng Xiang, Muzi Yang, Guifa Long, Zhicheng Hu, Kai Wan, Zhiyong Fu, Zhenxing Liang. Highly Active and Robust Cr-Doped Co3O4 Electrocatalyst for Acidic Oxygen Evolution via H-Receptor-Mediated Mechanism. Green Energy&Environment. doi: 10.1016/j.gee.2026.03.018
Citation: Wenbo Liu, Zhipeng Xiang, Muzi Yang, Guifa Long, Zhicheng Hu, Kai Wan, Zhiyong Fu, Zhenxing Liang. Highly Active and Robust Cr-Doped Co3O4 Electrocatalyst for Acidic Oxygen Evolution via H-Receptor-Mediated Mechanism. Green Energy&Environment. doi: 10.1016/j.gee.2026.03.018
shu

Highly Active and Robust Cr-Doped Co3O4 Electrocatalyst for Acidic Oxygen Evolution via H-Receptor-Mediated Mechanism

doi: 10.1016/j.gee.2026.03.018

  • a. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Fuel Cell Technology, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, P.R. China;

  • b. Institute for Sustainable Transformation, School of Chemical Engineering and Light Industry, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, P.R. China;

  • c. Instrumental Analysis & Research Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, P.R. China;

  • d. Guangxi Key Laboratory of Chemistry and Engineering of Forest Products, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Guangxi Minzu University, Nanning 530008, P.R. China;

  • e. School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai 519082, P.R. China;

  • f. Beijing Laboratory of New Energy Storage Technology, Beijing 102206, P.R. China

Funds:

T Program of Yulin Innovation Institute of Clean Energy (E411120705).

This work was jointly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (22325802, U22A20417, 22208110, 22578135), the Commanding Heights of Science and Technology of Chinese Academy of Sciences (LDES150000), the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (2023B1515120005), the Guangdong Natural Science Foundation (2024A1515011963), the Guangdong Major Project of Basic and Applied Basic Research (2023B0303000002), the Science and Technology Program of Guangzhou (2023B03J1281), the State Key Laboratory of Catalysis (2024SKL-A-009), the Energy Revolution S&

  • Received date 10 October 2025, Accepted date 24 March 2026, RevRecd date 05 January 2026, Available online 28 March 2026
    Abstract
  • Developing efficient and durable oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalysts for acidic media is vital for advancing proton exchange membrane water electrolyzers (PEMWEs) but remains highly challenging. In this work, a lattice-engineered Cr-doped Co3O4 (Cr0.3-Co2.7O4) electrocatalyst is constructed and achieves high activity and robustness for acidic OER. Spectroscopic and theoretical analyses reveal that Cr preferentially substitutes Co3+ octahedral sites to form “CrO6” units and transfers charge from Cr to the coordinated O atoms, activating them as intrinsic proton receptors. This unique functionality enables the formation of a bridged *O-O-H-O* intermediate, which circumvents the scaling relationship in the adsorbate evolution mechanism and accelerates OER kinetics. Meanwhile, Cr incorporation strengthens neighboring Co-O bonds, preserving structural integrity under acidic conditions. As a result, the Cr0.3-Co2.7O4 electrocatalyst delivers an overpotential of 404 mV at 50 mA cm-2, outperforming commercial IrO2 (417 mV). In a PEMWE, it delivers 200 mA cm-2 at 1.71 V with 500 h continuous operation and only 18 μV h-1 degradation. This work establishes lattice engineering of intrinsic proton-accepting motifs as a viable strategy for designing efficient, durable and noble-metal-free electrocatalysts for acidic OER.

     

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