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Amorphous Cobalt Iron Borate Grown on Carbon Paper as a Precatalyst for Water Oxidation
Author(s) -
Liu Huibing,
Yang Liu,
Qiao Kangwei,
Zheng Lirong,
Cao Xiaohua,
Cao Dapeng
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
chemsuschem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.412
H-Index - 157
eISSN - 1864-564X
pISSN - 1864-5631
DOI - 10.1002/cssc.201901327
Subject(s) - oxygen evolution , overpotential , boron , cobalt , catalysis , inorganic chemistry , water splitting , carbon fibers , materials science , chemical engineering , hydrothermal circulation , chemistry , electrochemistry , electrode , organic chemistry , photocatalysis , composite material , composite number , engineering
The key to improving water oxidation is to develop efficient and earth‐abundant catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Herein, a new amorphous cobalt iron borate supported on 3D carbon paper integrated electrode is reported as a precatalyst for the OER, which was synthesized by using a one‐pot hydrothermal method. An optimum OER activity was obtained at 25 % Fe doping by screening the compositions of the Co and Fe. The best synthesized catalyst needs an overpotential of 227 mV to deliver a current density of 10 mA cm −2 and also exhibits a long‐term durability of 24 h. Impressively, we find that CoFe oxyhydroxide was formed in situ in the OER process, which serves as the real catalytic active species for OER. Moreover, the direct conversion from CoFe borate to CoFe oxyhydroxide is reported for the first time in metal borate OER catalysts. The discovery in this work, that is, that metal borate as a precursor can efficiently catalyze the OER in alkaline media, significantly widens the family of OER catalysts.