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Amorphous/Crystalline Heterostructured Cobalt‐Vanadium‐Iron (Oxy)hydroxides for Highly Efficient Oxygen Evolution Reaction
Author(s) -
Kuang Min,
Zhang Junming,
Liu Daobin,
Tan Huiteng,
Dinh Khang Ngoc,
Yang Lan,
Ren Hao,
Huang Wenjing,
Fang Wei,
Yao Jiandong,
Hao Xiaodong,
Xu Jianwei,
Liu Chuntai,
Song Li,
Liu Bin,
Yan Qingyu
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
advanced energy materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.08
H-Index - 220
eISSN - 1614-6840
pISSN - 1614-6832
DOI - 10.1002/aenm.202002215
Subject(s) - overpotential , oxygen evolution , tafel equation , electrocatalyst , materials science , catalysis , cobalt , amorphous solid , vanadium , transition metal , chemical engineering , inorganic chemistry , cobalt hydroxide , chemistry , crystallography , electrode , electrochemistry , metallurgy , biochemistry , engineering
The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is a key process involved in energy and environment‐related technologies. An ideal OER electrocatalyst should show high exposure of active sites and optimal adsorption energies of oxygenated species. However, earth‐abundant transition‐metal‐based OER electrocatalysts still operate with sluggish OER kinetics. Here, a cation‐exchange route is reported to fabricate cobalt‐vanadium‐iron (oxy)hydroxide (CoV‐Fe 0.28 ) nanosheets with tunable binding energies for the oxygenated intermediates. The formation of an amorphous/crystalline heterostructure in the CoV‐Fe 0.28 catalyst boosts the exposure of active sites compared to their crystalline and amorphous counterparts. Furthermore, the synergetic interaction of Co, V, and Fe cations in the CoV‐Fe 0.28 catalyst subtly regulates the local coordination environment and electronic structure, resulting in the optimal thermodynamic barrier for this elementary reaction step. As a result, the CoV‐Fe 0.28 catalyst exhibits superior electrocatalytic activity toward the OER. A low overpotential of 215 mV is required to afford a current density of 10 mA cm −2 with a small Tafel slope of 39.1 mV dec −1 , which outperforms commercial RuO 2 (321 mV and 86.2 mV dec −1 , respectively).