Unusual double ligand holes as catalytic active sites in LiNiO 2

Designing efficient catalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is of importance for energy conversion devices. The anionic redox allows formation of O-O bonds and offers higher OER activity than the conventional metal sites. Here, we successfully prepare LiNiO 2 with a dominant 3 d 8 L configuration ( L is a hole at O 2 p ) under high oxygen pressure, and achieve a double ligand holes 3 d 8 L 2 under OER since one electron removal occurs at O 2 p orbitals for Ni III oxides. LiNiO 2 exhibits super-efficient OER activity among LiMO 2 , R MO 3 (M = transition metal, R = rare earth) and other unary 3d catalysts. Multiple in situ/operando spectroscopies reveal Ni III →Ni IV transition together with Li-removal during OER. Our theory indicates that Ni IV (3 d 8 L 2 ) leads to direct O-O coupling between lattice oxygen and *O intermediates accelerating the OER activity. These findings highlight a new way to design the lattice oxygen redox with enough ligand holes created in OER process.