Template-stabilized oxidic nickel oxygen evolution catalysts

Significance Metal-oxide catalysts that do not rely on the critical metals corrode immediately in nonbasic solutions. The development of self-healing offers a design principle to avert corrosion for typical metal oxides in neutral and near-neutral solutions. However, the stabilization of metal-oxide oxygen evolution catalysts (OECs) in acid remains to be a challenge that requires new design principles and strategies. We show here that high activity from OECs may be achieved in acid by embedding catalytic metal-oxide active sites within an acid-stable oxide framework. Specifically, we show that oxidic Ni OECs may be stabilized for extended periods of OER by embedding Ni in the acid-stable oxide framework of PbO 2 polymorphs.