“Electron Complementation”-Induced Molybdenum Nitride/Co-Anchored Graphitic Carbon Nitride Porous Nanoparticles for Efficient Overall Water Splitting

Abstract

Maximizing the usable space of electrocatalysts and fine-tuning the interface geometry as well as the electronic structure to facilitate hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions (HER and OER) have always been the focus of research. Herein, a homogeneous porous nanoparticle construction strategy was proposed, in which molybdenum nitride (Mo2N) particles were prepared by controlled heat treatment of the precursor nanoparticle induced by polyethylene glycol, and the Mo2N/Co-C3N4 heterostructure with a pore size of about 1.13 nm was obtained by compounding Co-anchored graphitic carbon nitride. In particular, exploring the change of charge distribution at the interface based on the principle of “electron complementation” shows that under the regulation of nitrogen with high electronegativity, the affinity of active site Co to oxygenated species in the OER process and the adsorption as well as cleavage ability of HER reactants in the active site were effectively optimized. Thus, Mo2N/Co-C3N4 not only inherits the functions of each component, but also provides an ideal heterogeneous interface for exhibiting impressive bifunctional activity, which only needs 100 and 210 mV to deliver 10 mA cm–2 for the HER and OER, respectively. In addition, the Mo2N/Co-C3N4 catalyst also demonstrates high overall water splitting stability with a slight current decrease after 95 h. Manipulating the electronic structure of multiple sites by constructing electronically complementary interfaces may provide another avenue to develop highly active catalysts for overall water splitting and other applications.