Carbon cloth supporting spinel CuMnCoO nanoneedles with the regulated electronic structure by multiple metal elements as catalysts for efficient oxygen evolution reaction.

Developing transition metal oxide catalysts to replace the noble metal oxide catalysts for efficient oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is essential to promote the practical application of water splitting. Herein, we designed and constructed the carbon cloth (CC) supporting spinel CuMnCoO nanoneedles with regulated electronic structure by multiple metal elements with variable chemical valences in the spinel CuMnCoO. The carbon cloth not only provided good conductivity for the catalytic reaction but also supported the well-standing spinel CuMnCoO nanoneedles arrays with a large special surface area. Meanwhile, the well-standing nanoneedles arrays and mesoporous structure of CuMnCoO nanoneedles enhanced their wettability and facilitated access for electrolyte to electrochemical catalysis. Besides, the regulated electronic structure and generated oxygen vacancies of CuMnCoO/CC by multiple metal elements improved the intrinsic catalytic activity and the durability of OER activity. Profiting from these merits, the CuMnCoO/CC electrode exhibited superior OER activity with an ultralow overpotential of 189 mV at the current density of 10 mA⋅cm and a smaller Tafel slope of 64.1 mV⋅dec, which was competitive with the noble metal oxides electrode. And the CuMnCoO/CC electrode also exhibited long-term durability for OER with 95.3% of current retention after 1000 cycles. Therefore, the competitive OER activity and excellent cycling durability suggested that the CuMnCoO/CC electrode is a potential candidate catalyst for efficient OER.