Morphology and Surface Reconstruction-Driven Catalytic Enhancement in CoMn₂O₄ for Efficient OER Application

The development of efficient and durable oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts from earth-abundant materials is essential for advancing alkaline water electrolysis. Herein, nanograss-like CoMn₂O₄ electrode films are directly grown on stainless-steel substrates via a temperature-controlled hydrothermal approach, and their OER performance is systematically investigated. The CoMn₂O₄ obtained at 120 °C (CMO-120) delivers the best catalytic activity in 1.0 M KOH, requiring an overpotential of 292 mV at 10 mA cm⁻², which is lower than those synthesized at 150 (CMO-150) and 90 °C (CMO-90). Notably, activity of CMO-120 becomes even more pronounced at elevated current densities, achieving the low overpotential of 434 mV even at 300 mA cm⁻², substantially outperforming both CMO-90 and CMO-150 electrodes. The enhanced activity is attributed to an interconnected nanograss architecture with mixed Co²⁺/Co³⁺ and Mn²⁺/Mn³⁺ redox couples and abundant defect-related oxygen species, which result in increased electrochemically active surface area and improved charge transportation throughout the nanograss architecture that facilitate OH⁻ adsorption and OER intermediate transformation. Furthermore, CMO-120 demonstrates excellent durability (100 h) after electro-oxidation-induced surface activation. These findings highlight precise temperature regulation as an effective strategy for optimizing Mn-Co spinel for efficient alkaline OER applications.