From Fundamental Understanding to Modification Strategies of Cobalt Molybdates in Electrocatalytic Oxygen Evolution Reaction

The key bottleneck in electrochemical water splitting for hydrogen production is the slow anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) kinetics, making high-efficiency, stable, low-cost non-noble metal OER catalysts a research focus. Cobalt molybdate (CoMoO₄) is prominent due to abundant resources, strong bimetallic synergy, and high structural flexibility. Starting from the OER reaction mechanism, it compares the reaction pathways and energy barrier differences between the adsorbate evolution mechanism (AEM) and the lattice oxygen participation mechanism (LOM), reveals "mechanism tunability" of CoMoO₄ via the electronegativity of Mo⁶⁺, and analyzes three inherent defects based on crystal structure and semiconductor properties of the material. It also summarizes principles, parameters, and performance regulation of four preparation methods, specifies test methods for core performance, and verifies industrial potential. Additionally, the review focuses on sorting out the action mechanisms and research examples of three performance enhancement strategies: electronic structure regulation, surface reconstruction optimization, and structural regulation. Finally, it points out current challenges (dynamic mechanism understanding, multi-strategy synergy, etc.) and prospects future directions (in situ characterization-based mechanism exploration, etc.), aiming to provide references for high-efficiency non-noble metal OER catalyst research and application.