Sulfur‐Doped CoO Nanoflakes with Loosely Packed Structure Realizing Enhanced Oxygen Evolution Reaction.

Kuang, Xuan; Kang, Baotao; Wang, Zhiling; Gao, Lingfeng; Guo, Chengying; Lee, Jin Yong; Sun, Xu; Wei, Qin

The development of active and inexpensive electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) to promote water splitting has always been a major challenge. Cobalt‐based oxides and sulfides have been actively investigated due to their low cost and high activity. However, the lower intrinsic conductivity of cobalt oxide and the inferior stability of cobalt sulfides still limit their practical application. Herein, CoO was chosen for a proof‐of‐concept study in which the anion‐doping strategy was used to obtain an excellent catalyst. Sulfur incorporation optimizes the charge‐transfer properties and active sites of sulfur‐doped CoO (S‐CoO) and thus gives rise to improved catalytic activity. Besides sulfur doping, the stable framework of the cobalt oxide was well maintained, and thus high stability of S‐CoO throughout the reaction process was ensured. Nanoflake electrocatalyst: Sulfur‐doped CoO nanoflakes with loosely packed structure were fabricated by reaction of Co3O4 nanosheets with thioacetamide (TAA) which was used as both sulfur source and reducing agent (see figure). Sulfur doping optimizes the charge‐transfer properties and the active sites and thus leads to clearly enhanced catalytic activity in the oxygen evolution reaction.

COBALT oxides; OXYGEN evolution reactions; DOPING agents (Chemistry); ELECTROCATALYSTS; WATER electrolysis; ELECTRIC conductivity

Chemistry - A European Journal, 2018, Vol 24, Issue 65, p17288

0947-6539

Academic Journal

10.1002/chem.201803302