近日，厦门大学黄小青团队报道了八面体配位Co₃O₄用于酸性水电解。相关论文于2026年7月29日发表在《自然》杂志上。

开发高活性、稳定的非贵金属氧化物催化剂以替代铱基材料，用于高效酸性水电解，至关重要。然而，传统尖晶石型四氧化三钴因同时存在非活性的四面体（Td）和高活性的八面体（Oh）配位位点，而受到本征性能限制。

研究组报道了一种新型三方相Co₃O₄（Tri-Co₃O₄），采用真空介导的熔碱机械化学方法制备，该材料具有共边[CoO₆]八面体配位结构，空间群为P-3m1（164）。其三层紧密堆积结构使Co²⁺和Co³⁺以1:2的比例位于八面体配位中。

在酸性析氧反应（OER）中，Tri-Co₃O₄在10 mA cm^-2电流密度下实现了269 mV的低过电位，比尖晶石型Co₃O₄低181 mV。在质子交换膜水电解（PEMWE）器件中，该材料在1.80 V槽压下实现了超过1,800 mA cm^-2的电流密度。催化机理表明，具有共边八面体配位的二维层状结构能够有效优化中间体的吸附并减少Co的溶出，从而显著提高非贵金属催化剂的活性和稳定性。

附：英文原文

Title: Octahedral-coordinated Co3O4 for water electrolysis in acid

Author: Wang, Yue, Ji, Yujin, Zhou, Jing, Chen, Jinxin, Li, Chenchen, Zhao, Chendi, Ke, Jia, Xiong, Yutian, Pan, Sihui, Huang, Wei-Hsiang, Pao, Chih-Wen, Kuo, Chang-Yang, Chen, Chien-Te, Li, Youyong, Hu, Zhiwei, Shao, Qi, Huang, Xiaoqing

Issue&Volume: 2026-07-29

Abstract: The development of highly active and stable non-noble metal oxide catalysts to replace iridium-based materials for efficient acidic water electrolysis is crucial1,2,3. However, traditional spinel cobalt oxide suffers from intrinsic performance limitations from coexistence of inactive tetrahedral (Td) and highly active octahedral (Oh) coordination sites4,5. Here we report a new trigonal-phase Co3O4 (Tri-Co3O4) produced by a vacuum-mediated molten-alkali mechanochemical method, which shows edge-shared [CoO6] octahedral coordination with the space group P-3m1(164). The three-layer compact structure provides Co2+ and Co3+ located in octahedral coordination in the ratio 1:2. Tri-Co3O4 achieves a low overpotential of 269millivolts (mV) at the current density of 10mAcm2 in the acidic oxygen evolution reaction (OER), 181mV less than spinel-type Co3O4. It also achieves a current density exceeding 1,800mAcm2 at a cell voltage of 1.80V in proton-exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE) devices. The catalytic mechanism shows that the 2D layered structure with edge-shared octahedral coordination can effectively optimize the adsorption of intermediates and reduce the dissolution of Co, thereby substantially improving the activity and stability of the non-noble metal catalysts.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-10851-7

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10851-7