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Abstract

The production of hydrogen via water electrolysis is feasible only if effective and stable catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are available. Intermetallic compounds with the well-defined crystal and electronic structures as well as particular chemical bonding features are suggested here to act as precursors for new composite materials with attractive catalytic properties. Al₂Pt combines a characteristic inorganic crystal structure (anti-fluorite type) and a strongly polar chemical bonding with the advantage of elemental platinum in terms of stability against dissolution under OER conditions. We describe here the unforeseen performance of a surface nanocomposite architecture resulting from the self-organized transformation of the bulk intermetallic precursor Al₂Pt in OER.