Brownmillerite-type Ca2FeCoO5 as a Practicable Oxygen Evolution Reaction Catalyst

Here, we report remarkable oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalytic activity of brownmillerite (BM)-type Ca2FeCoO5. The OER activity of this oxide is comparable to or beyond those of the state-of-the-art perovskite (PV)-catalyst Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.8Fe0.2O3-δ (BSCF) and a precious-metal catalyst RuO2, emphasizing the importance of the characteristic BM structure with multiple coordination environments of transition metal (TM) species. Also, Ca2FeCoO5 is obviously advantageous in terms of expense/laboriousness of the material synthesis. These facts make this oxide a promising OER catalyst used in many energy conversion technologies such as metal-air secondary batteries and hydrogen production from electrochemical/photocatalytic water splitting.