Localizing the Long‐Range Disorder of Reconstructed Cobalt Oxyhydroxides for Anion Exchange Membrane Water Electrolysis

Abstract Controlling the long‐range disorder of dynamically reconstructed nanostructures represents a challenging but important approach for achieving practical catalysts with high performance. Here, we report a facile fluoride‐mediated‐stabilization strategy to finely localize the long‐range disorder of reconstructed amorphous Co‐based oxyhydroxide (CoOOH) nanosheets under oxygen evolution reaction (OER) conditions with compatible lattice‐oxygen activation and regeneration for robust anion exchange membrane water electrolysis (AEMWE). The stabilized lattice Co by fluoride‐induced bond reinforcing in pre‐catalysts enabled localized long‐range disorder of reconstructed amorphous oxyhydroxides. The localized long‐range disorder can promote Co─O covalency for activating lattice oxygen and also induce tensile strain as an oxygen pump for regenerating lattice oxygen. The corresponding AEMWE yielded a cutting‐edge current of 3.4 A cm −2 at 2.0 V and remarkable stability with imperceptible degradation of 0.09 mV h −1 in 1200 h. This work opens up a feasible avenue for developing targeted catalysts under operating conditions by finely tuning the long‐range disorder during reconstruction.