Activating cobalt(II) oxide nanorods for efficient electrocatalysis by strain engineering

Nature Communications - Tập 8 Số 1
Tao Ling1, Dong-Yang Yan1, Hui Wang2, Yan Jiao3, Zhenpeng Hu4, Yao Zheng3, Lirong Zheng5, Jing Mao1, Hui Liu1, Xi‐Wen Du1, Mietek Jaroniec6, Shi Zhang Qiao3
1Key Laboratory for Advanced Ceramics and Machining Technology of Ministry of Education, Institute of New-Energy, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, China
2Key Laboratory of Aerospace Materials and Performance (Ministry of Education), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
3School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, 5005, Australia
4School of Physics, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China
5Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
6Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Kent State University, Kent, OH 44242, USA

Tóm tắt

AbstractDesigning high-performance and cost-effective electrocatalysts toward oxygen evolution and hydrogen evolution reactions in water–alkali electrolyzers is pivotal for large-scale and sustainable hydrogen production. Earth-abundant transition metal oxide-based catalysts are particularly active for oxygen evolution reaction; however, they are generally considered inactive toward hydrogen evolution reaction. Here, we show that strain engineering of the outermost surface of cobalt(II) oxide nanorods can turn them into efficient electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction. They are competitive with the best electrocatalysts for this reaction in alkaline media so far. Our theoretical and experimental results demonstrate that the tensile strain strongly couples the atomic, electronic structure properties and the activity of the cobalt(II) oxide surface, which results in the creation of a large quantity of oxygen vacancies that facilitate water dissociation, and fine tunes the electronic structure to weaken hydrogen adsorption toward the optimum region.

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Nature Communications

Tập 8 Số 1

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