Engineering P-Fe2O3-CoP nanosheets for overall freshwater and seawater splitting

Zhijie Cui; Zhibo Yan; Jie Yin; Wenpin Wang; Mei-E Yue; Zhongcheng Li

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2023.08.148

Engineering P-Fe₂O₃-CoP nanosheets for overall freshwater and seawater splitting

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2023 Dec 15;652(Pt B):1117-1125. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.08.148. Epub 2023 Aug 24.

Authors

Zhijie Cui¹, Zhibo Yan¹, Jie Yin², Wenpin Wang³, Mei-E Yue⁴, Zhongcheng Li⁵

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Optic-electric Sensing and Analytical Chemistry for Life Science, MOE, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, College of Polymer Science and Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266042, China.
² College of Materials Science and Engineering, Liaocheng University, Liaocheng 252059, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Optic-electric Sensing and Analytical Chemistry for Life Science, MOE, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, College of Polymer Science and Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266042, China. Electronic address: wangwp@qust.edu.cn.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Optic-electric Sensing and Analytical Chemistry for Life Science, MOE, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, College of Polymer Science and Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266042, China. Electronic address: yuemeie@qust.edu.cn.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Optic-electric Sensing and Analytical Chemistry for Life Science, MOE, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, College of Polymer Science and Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266042, China; Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry (Ministry of Education), Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China. Electronic address: zhongchengli@qust.edu.cn.

PMID: 37657212
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.08.148

Abstract

Tailoring surface composition and coordinative environment of catalysts in a nano-meter region often influence their chemical performance. It is reported that CoP exhibits a low dissociation ability of H-OH, originating from the poor desorption of intermediate species. Herein, we provide a feasible method to construct P-Fe₂O₃-CoP nanosheets through a gas-phase phosphorization process. P doping induces the formation of interfacial structure between Fe₂O₃ and CoP and the generation of defective structures. The resulting P-Fe₂O₃-CoP nanosheets afford high freshwater/seawater oxidation activity (250/270 mV@10 mA/cm²) in 1 mol/L (M) KOH, which is even lower than commercial RuO₂. Compared with CoP||CoP, P-Fe₂O₃||P-Fe₂O₃, and Co₃O₄||Co₃O₄, the assembled P-Fe₂O₃-CoP||P-Fe₂O₃-CoP exhibits the superior water/seawater electrolysis performance with 1.61/1.65 V@10 mA/cm². The synergistic effect of P doping, defective structure, and heterojunction leads to high water oxidation efficiency and water splitting efficiency.

Keywords: Defect sites; Freshwater splitting reaction; Interface structures; P-Fe(2)O(3)-CoP; Seawater splitting reaction.