Acidic Media Regulated Hierarchical Cobalt Compounds with Phosphorous Doping as Water Splitting Electrocatalysts

Abstract

Facile synthesis of elaborate nanostructured transition metal compounds with tunable components remains challenging because multiple synthetic procedures or complex manipulation are normally involved. Herein, an acid‐etching strategy is applied to Co, in which the composition and morphology of the resultant materials are tunable. Specifically, a novel two‐tiered Co(CO3)0.5(OH)·0.11H2O nanosheet is formed, part of which decomposes to produce hierarchical Co(CO3)0.5(OH)·0.11H2O/Co3O4 nanocomposite by tuning the etching condition. The composite shows bifunctional electrocatalytic capability towards the oxygen evolution and hydrogen evolution reactions (OER and HER). Moreover, the phosphorous dopant is introduced to boost the catalytic activity, especially in the HER. Density functional theory calculations reveal that the phosphorous dopant can dramatically push the binding energy to the ideal value, thus improving the HER performance. Computed results indicate that partial orbitals of the P atom are above the Fermi level and the P atom enhances the charge density of the neighboring Co atom, which optimizes the H* binding. In addition, an efficient overall water splitting configuration is performed with the integration of the P‐doped Co compound catalysts. The acid‐etching methodology inspires more novel nanostructured and multicomponent metal compounds for prominent electrocatalysis.

Mn, P co-doped sharp-edged Mo2C nanosheets anchored on porous carbon for efficient electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution

“…Fortunately, transition metal-based electrocatalysts with high availability, excellent stability and prominent activity have been developed over the past few decades. 4–10…”

Halogen‐Doped Carbon Dots on Amorphous Cobalt Phosphide as Robust Electrocatalysts for Overall Water Splitting

“…[11][12][13] Transitional metal phosphides (TMPs), such as CoP, [14][15][16] Ni 5 P 4 , [17][18][19][20][21][22] and MoP, [23][24][25] have attracted wide attention owing to their low cost, simple preparation, good electrical conductivity, suitable d-electron configuration, moderate intermediate bond energy, and abundant chemical states. [26][27][28] Among them, CoP has demonstrated excellent electrocatalysis because it facilitates the adsorption and desorption of hydrogen and oxygen. However, its weak conductivity and poor corrosion resistance reduce its activity and stability in comparison with Pt-based materials.…”

Phase‐Reconfiguration‐Induced NiS/NiFe2O4 Composite for Performance‐Enhanced Zinc−Air Batteries

“…[7][8][9] Previous reports show that modifying the surface or bulk of materials by constructing composites, such as heterogeneous phase constructing, vacancy constructing, and interfacial engineering, can largely improve the performance of catalysts. [10][11][12][13] With regard to structural regulation, disrupting long-range order by constructing composite structures facilitates to obtain unexpected catalytic properties due to the synergistic coupling effect. [4,14] These methods can merely improve the performance of specific catalytic reactions, however, the method universality remains being improved.Surface modification and reconstruction are interesting topics from a viewpoint of catalysis, and many challenges Constructing composite structures is an essential approach for obtaining multiple functionalities in a single entity.…”