The
oxygen evolution reaction (OER) accompanied by multistep proton-coupled
electron transfer is the decisive step of electrochemical water splitting
due to the sluggish kinetics process. Enhancing the efficiency of
water splitting indispensably requires stable and high-efficiency
electrocatalysts for OER. The OER activity of electrocatalysts can
be largely heightened by well adjusting their energy level and active
sites. Herein, the amorphous iron cobalt molybdenum carbonate hydroxide
core–shell microspheres (FeCoMo/CoMo) offer significant opportunities
to improve the OER activity in both thermodynamics and kinetics due
to the appropriate matching of the energy level with the equilibrium
potential of OER and the abundant active sites.The well-designed Fe0.25–CoMoCH/NF sample exhibits prominent activity toward
OER with an overpotential as low as 232 mV to deliver a current density
of 10 mA cm–2, a small Tafel slope of 46 mV dec–1, and excellent stability in alkaline solution. Mechanistic
studies using a rotating ring-disk electrode confirm the four-electron
pathway with high faradaic efficiency (97.7%) toward OER. This research
provides a model system so as to tune the inherent catalytic activity
of electrocatalysts.