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Amorphous Cobalt Oxide Nanoparticles as Active Water‐Oxidation Catalysts
Author(s) -
Chen Zheng,
Duan Zhiyao,
Wang Zhiliang,
Liu Xiaoyan,
Gu Lin,
Zhang Fuxiang,
Dupuis Michel,
Li Can
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
chemcatchem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.497
H-Index - 106
eISSN - 1867-3899
pISSN - 1867-3880
DOI - 10.1002/cctc.201700882
Subject(s) - cobalt , polyoxometalate , cobalt oxide , catalysis , amorphous solid , nanoparticle , oxide , materials science , photocatalysis , heterogeneous catalysis , inorganic chemistry , photochemistry , chemical engineering , chemistry , nanotechnology , crystallography , organic chemistry , engineering , metallurgy
Abstract Artificial photosynthesis requires the practical use of efficient, robust, and economical water‐oxidation catalysts (WOCs) for chemical‐fuel production. The synthesis of amorphous cobalt oxide nanoparticles (ca. 2 nm) is reported as a WOC with a turnover frequency up to 8.6 s −1 in the photocatalytic Ru(bpy) 3 2+ –Na 2 S 2 O 8 system (bpy=2,2′‐bipyridyl). This activity is unprecedented in heterogeneous cobalt‐based WOCs and is even comparable to that of a state‐of‐the‐art homogeneous cobalt‐based polyoxometalate catalyst. With the help of experimental and computational X‐ray absorption spectroscopy, the atomic structure of the synthesized amorphous cobalt oxide nanoparticles was characterized, and it consists of a one‐dimensional chain of dimeric edge‐sharing CoO 6 octahedra. Theoretical calculations suggest that this structure was able to promote O−O bond coupling, unlike crystalline cobalt oxide WOCs, which led to the enhanced water‐oxidation activity.