High-Entropy Carbonates (Ni-Mn-Co-Zn-Cr-Fe) as a Promising Electrocatalyst for Alkalized Seawater Oxidation

Direct seawater splitting has attracted considerable attention as an alternative to conventional alkaline water electrolysis because the former avoids the use of limited freshwater resources. However, several challenges must be overcome to realize direct seawater electrolysis. Most importantly, electrocatalysts for the anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) should exhibit high activity, stability, and selectivity in highly corrosive environments with abundant chloride ions. In this study, we developed high-entropy carbonate (HEC) as a promising electrocatalyst for seawater oxidation. In HECs, physicochemical interactions among different elements can effectively suppress the corrosion of OER active sites, while polyanionic CO32- can act as a corrosion-protective species by repelling negatively charged chloride ions during electrolysis. Consequently, HECs demonstrate outstanding catalytic activity, stability, and selectivity for seawater oxidation, surpassing those of ternary, quaternary, and quinary carbonates and even benchmark IrO2 catalysts.