Bifunctional gold–manganese oxide nanocomposites: benign electrocatalysts toward water oxidation and oxygen reduction

Abstract

Gold–manganese oxide nanocomposites were synthesised by seed-mediated epitaxial growth at the water/n-heptane interface under mild reflux conditions. These nanocomposites exhibit efficient electrocatalytic activity toward the water oxidation reaction (WOR) and the simultaneous oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) at a low overpotential (η ≈ 370 mV) and under neutral pH conditions.