Novel Co3O4 Nanoparticles/Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Composites with Extraordinary Catalytic Activity for Oxygen Evolution Reaction (OER)

Xiaobing Yang; Juan Chen; Yuqing Chen; Pingjing Feng; Huixian Lai; Jintang Li; Xuetao Luo

doi:10.1007/s40820-017-0170-4

Novel Co₃O₄ Nanoparticles/Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Composites with Extraordinary Catalytic Activity for Oxygen Evolution Reaction (OER)

Nanomicro Lett. 2018;10(1):15. doi: 10.1007/s40820-017-0170-4. Epub 2017 Nov 14.

Authors

Xiaobing Yang^{1

2}, Juan Chen^#³, Yuqing Chen^#⁴, Pingjing Feng⁴, Huixian Lai⁴, Jintang Li⁴, Xuetao Luo⁵

Affiliations

¹ College of Ecology and Resource Engineering, Wuyi University, Wuyishan, 354300, Fujian, People's Republic of China.
² Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Eco-Industrial Green Technology, Wuyi University, Wuyishan, 354300, Fujian, People's Republic of China.
³ Department of Pharmacy, Zhongshan Hospital, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361004, Fujian, People's Republic of China.
⁴ Fujian Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials, College of Materials, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, Fujian, People's Republic of China.
⁵ Fujian Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials, College of Materials, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, Fujian, People's Republic of China. xuetao@xmu.edu.cn.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Herein, Co₃O₄ nanoparticles/nitrogen-doped carbon (Co₃O₄/NPC) composites with different structures were prepared via a facile method. Structure control was achieved by the rational morphology design of ZIF-67 precursors, which were then pyrolyzed in air to obtain Co₃O₄/NPC composites. When applied as catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), the M-Co₃O₄/NPC composites derived from the flower-like ZIF-67 showed superior catalytic activities than those derived from the rhombic dodecahedron and hollow spherical ZIF-67. The former M-Co₃O₄/NPC composite displayed a small over-potential of 0.3 V, low onset potential of 1.41 V, small Tafel slope of 83 mV dec^-1, and a desirable stability. (94.7% OER activity was retained after 10 h.) The excellent performance of the flower-like M-Co₃O₄/NPC composite in the OER was attributed to its favorable structure.

Keywords: Catalytic; Co3O4 nanoparticles; Nitrogen-doped carbon; Oxygen evolution reaction (OER); ZIF-67.