Intermetallic Cobalt Indium Nanoparticles as Oxygen Evolution Reaction Precatalyst: A Non-Leaching p-Block Element

Abstract

Merely all transition-metal-based materials reconstruct into similar oxyhydroxides during the electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction (OER), severely limiting the options for a tailored OER catalyst design. In such reconstructions, initial constituent p-block elements take a sacrificial role and leach into the electrolyte as oxyanions, thereby losing the ability to tune the catalyst's properties systematically. From a thermodynamic point of view, indium is expected to behave differently and should remain in the solid phase under alkaline OER conditions. However, the structural behavior of transition metal indium phases during the OER remains unexplored. Herein, are synthesized intermetallic cobalt indium (CoIn3) nanoparticles and revealed by in situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy and scanning transmission microscopy that they undergo phase segregation to cobalt oxyhydroxide and indium hydroxide. The obtained cobalt oxyhydroxide outperforms a metallic-cobalt-derived one due to more accessible active sites. The observed phase segregation shows that indium behaves distinctively differently from most p-block elements and remains at the electrode surface, where it can form lasting interfaces with the active metal oxo phases.