Accelerating charge transfer to enhance H2 evolution of defect-rich CoFe2O4 by constructing a Schottky junction

Yuchao Wang; Biao Liu; Yi Liu; Chengye Song; Wenju Wang; Wenkui Li; Qingguo Feng; Yongpeng Lei

doi:10.1039/d0cc05656a

Accelerating charge transfer to enhance H₂ evolution of defect-rich CoFe₂O₄ by constructing a Schottky junction

Chem Commun (Camb). 2020 Nov 12;56(90):14019-14022. doi: 10.1039/d0cc05656a.

Authors

Yuchao Wang¹, Biao Liu², Yi Liu³, Chengye Song⁴, Wenju Wang⁵, Wenkui Li⁴, Qingguo Feng⁶, Yongpeng Lei³

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Powder Metallurgy, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China. lypkd@163.com leiyongpeng@csu.edu.cn and College of Materials Science and Engineering, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha 410004, China.
² Hunan Key Laboratory for Super-microstructure and Ultrafast Process, School of Physics and Electronics, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Powder Metallurgy, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China. lypkd@163.com leiyongpeng@csu.edu.cn.
⁴ School of Materials and Mechanical Engineering, Jiangxi Key Laboratory of Surface Engineering, Jiangxi Science and Technology Normal University, Nanchang, 330013, China.
⁵ School of Energy and Power Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210094, China.
⁶ Key Laboratory of Advanced Technologies of Materials, Ministry of Education, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, China.

PMID: 33095217
DOI: 10.1039/d0cc05656a

Abstract

We demonstrate a charge transfer boosted hydrogen (H2) evolution of transition metal oxides via a Schottky junction. The FeNi and metallic defect-rich CoFe2O4 (DCF) as well as semiconducting nitrogen-doped carbon (NC), named as FeNi/DCF/NC, possessed only 6.5% charge transfer resistance of DCF. Theoretical calculations indicate that the enhanced electron movement happened from FeNi/DCF to NC. The H2 evolution activity of FeNi/DCF/NC showed 5.8-fold improvement compared to that of DCF at the overpotential of 400 mV in 1.0 M KOH. This work provides an effective way to enhance the electrocatalytic activity of oxides for the H2 evolution reaction and related reactions.