Issue 18, 2020

Electronic engineering of CoSe/FeSe2 hollow nanospheres for efficient water oxidation

Abstract

First-row non-precious metal-based catalysts are widely studied and recognized as potential substitutes for precious metal-based catalysts in the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) for hydrogen generation but their application remains challenging. In this study, a unique class of Co–Fe selenide hollow nanospheres (CoSe@FeSe2) is well-designed through a facile hydrothermal method. The in situ formed hybrid composites possess numerous interfaces allowing partial electron transfer via O2− bridges to optimize the adsorption feature of the reaction intermediates, *OH, *O, and *OOH, on the catalysts. The collected surface valence band spectra evidence the optimization of the intermediate adsorption and active sites. The as-synthesized CoSe@FeSe2 exhibits excellent OER activity with a low overpotential of 281 mV to drive a current density of 10 mA cm−2 and a low Tafel slope of 34.3 mV dec−1 in an alkaline electrolyte. Additionally, the advanced catalyst also shows super stability with negligible current density decay after 12 h. This work presents a prototype for the fabrication of highly efficient electrocatalysts using an electronic engineering strategy.

Graphical abstract: Electronic engineering of CoSe/FeSe2 hollow nanospheres for efficient water oxidation

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
03 Mar 2020
Accepted
15 Apr 2020
First published
16 Apr 2020

Nanoscale, 2020,12, 10196-10204

Electronic engineering of CoSe/FeSe2 hollow nanospheres for efficient water oxidation

Y. Zhang, J. Xu, L. Lv, A. Wang, B. Zhang, Y. Ding and C. Wang, Nanoscale, 2020, 12, 10196 DOI: 10.1039/D0NR01809K

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