Abstract
Precisely engineering metal-ion vacancy in dynamically reconstructed electrocatalysts provides an attractive symmetry-breaking tool to develop robust electrocatalysts under operation conditions. Herein, we demonstrate a convenient Sr-ion-mediated reconstruction strategy to fabricate Co-vacancy-enriched Sr-CoOOH nanosheets under oxygen evolution reaction conditions with balanced activation and refilling of lattice oxygen for practical anion-exchange membrane water electrolysis. The Sr-ion substitution in pre-catalysts can weaken bond strength for facilitated Co-ion vacancies formation in reconstructed oxyhydroxides. These Co-ion vacancies not only strengthen Co-O covalency for lattice oxygen activation, but also improve hydroxyl affinity for lattice oxygen refilling. The corresponding water electrolyzer exhibits a cutting-edge current of 3.3 A cm-2 at 2.0 V with a lowered energy consumption of 43.5 kWh kg-1H2, and negligible degradation of 0.10 mV h-1 for 1000 h. This work paves an enlightening guideline to finely engineer metal-ion vacancy in dynamically reconstructed electrocatalysts, demonstrating the feasibility to develop targeted catalysts under practical conditions.
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Acknowledgements
This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (22002046 and 22379119 to X.Z., 22203086 and 22573109 to X.Y.L.), the Sanqin Youth Talent Program of Shaanxi Province (2023SYJ27), the Qin Chuangyuan High-level Innovative and Entrepreneurial Talent Program of Shaanxi Province (QCYRCXM-2023-045), the Youth Talent Support Program of Xi’an Association for Science and Technology (959202313070), and the Young Top-notch Talent Program of Xi’an Jiaotong University (HG6J028) to X.Z., as well as the National Science and Technology Council of Taiwan (NSTC 113-2113-M-002-005) to R.S.L., and the Innovation Program for Quantum Science and Technology (2021ZD0303306) to X.Y.L. We also thank Dr. Jia Liu at the Instrumental Analysis Center of Xi’an Jiaotong University for the assistance in in situ Raman characterizations.
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J.X.Z. conducted the experiments, data analysis and wrote the original paper. X.M.L. performed the experiments. K.J.W. and Y.T.H. performed XAS measurements. Q.W. conducted catalytic tests. X.Y.C. conducted the data analysis. X.Y.L. performed DFT calculations and carefully revised the manuscript. R.S.L. provided suggestions and carefully revised the manuscript. X.Z. designed and supervised this project and carefully revised the manuscript. All the authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.
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Nature Communications thanks Zhenhua Zeng who co-reviewed with Purva Paranjape; Wei Luo, Xiaoyong Xu and the other anonymous reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. A peer review file is available.
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Zhao, J., Li, X., Wang, K. et al. Engineering Co-ion vacancy in dynamically reconstructed Co-based catalysts for practical anion-exchange membrane electrolysis. Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-69547-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-69547-1
