Interfacial Chemical Bond Modulation of Co3(PO4)2-MoO3- x Heterostructures for Alkaline Water/Seawater Splitting

Mei Yang; Beibei Shi; Yili Tang; Hongxiu Lu; Gang Wang; Shilin Zhang; Muhammad Tariq Sarwar; Aidong Tang; Liangjie Fu; Mingjie Wu; Huaming Yang

doi:10.1021/acs.inorgchem.2c04181

Interfacial Chemical Bond Modulation of Co₃(PO₄)₂-MoO_{3- x} Heterostructures for Alkaline Water/Seawater Splitting

Inorg Chem. 2023 Feb 13;62(6):2838-2847. doi: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.2c04181. Epub 2023 Jan 29.

Authors

Mei Yang¹, Beibei Shi², Yili Tang¹, Hongxiu Lu¹, Gang Wang¹, Shilin Zhang¹, Muhammad Tariq Sarwar^{3

2

4}, Aidong Tang^{1

3

2

4}, Liangjie Fu^{5

3

2

4}, Mingjie Wu⁶, Huaming Yang^{5

3

2

4}

Affiliations

¹ College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China.
² Faculty of Materials Science and Chemistry, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China.
³ Engineering Research Center of Nano-Geomaterials of Ministry of Education, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Functional Geomaterials in China Nonmetallic Minerals Industry, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China.
⁵ Hunan Key Laboratory of Mineral Materials and Application, School of Minerals Processing and Bioengineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China.
⁶ Department of Chemical Engineering, McGill University, 3610 University Street, Montreal, QC H3A 0C5, Canada.

PMID: 36709429
DOI: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.2c04181

Abstract

The development of a high current density with high energy conversion efficiency electrocatalyst is vital for large-scale industrial application of alkaline water splitting, particularly seawater splitting. Herein, we design a self-supporting Co₃(PO₄)₂-MoO_3-x/CoMoO₄/NF superaerophobic electrode with a three-dimensional structure for high-performance hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) by a reasonable devise of possible "Co-O-Mo hybridization" on the interface. The "Co-O-Mo hybridization" interfaces induce charge transfer and generation of fresh oxygen vacancy active sites. Consequently, the unique heterostructures greatly facilitate the dissociation process of H₂O molecules and enable efficient hydrogen spillover, leading to excellent HER performance with ultralow overpotentials (76 and 130 mV at 100 and 500 mA cm^-2) and long-term durability of 100 h in an alkaline electrolyte. Theoretical calculations reveal that the Co₃(PO₄)₂-MoO_3-x/CoMoO₄/NF promotes the adsorption/dissociation process of H₂O molecules to play a crucial role in improving the stability and activity of HER. Our results exhibit that the HER activity of non-noble metal electrocatalysts can be greatly enhanced by rational interfacial chemical bonding to modulate the heterostructures.