Light Inducing the Geometric Conversion of <scp> NiO ₆ </scp> to Trigger a Faster Oxygen Evolution Reaction Pathway: The Coupled Oxygen Evolution Mechanism

Developing highly active and robust oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalysts is still a critical challenge for water electrolyzers metal–air batteries. Realizing the dynamic of intermediate charge transfer during OER developing clear mechanism crucial to design high-performance catalysts. Recently in Nature, Xue colleagues revealed new mechanism, coupled (COM), which involves switchable metal redox under light irradiation nickel oxyhydroxide-based materials. This newly developed requires reversible geometric conversion between octahedron (NiO6) square planar (NiO4) achieve electronic states with both “metal redox” “oxygen OER. The asymmetric structure endows NR-NiOOH nonoverlapping region dz2 orbitals a1g* bands, facilitate enact COM pathway. As result, exhibited better activity stability than traditional NiOOH.