MoS2||CoP heterostructure loaded on N, P-doped carbon as an efficient trifunctional catalyst for oxygen reduction, oxygen evolution, and hydrogen evolution reaction

Objective evaluation of the activity of electrocatalysts for water oxidation is of fundamental importance for the development of promising energy conversion technologies including integrated solar water-splitting devices, water electrolyzers, and Li-air batteries. However, current methods employed to evaluate oxygen-evolving catalysts are not standardized, making it difficult to compare the activity and stability of these materials. We report a protocol for evaluating the activity, stability, and Faradaic efficiency of electrodeposited oxygen-evolving electrocatalysts. In particular, we focus on methods for determining electrochemically active surface area and measuring electrocatalytic activity and stability under conditions relevant to an integrated solar water-splitting device. Our primary figure of merit is the overpotential required to achieve a current density of 10 mA cm(-2) per geometric area, approximately the current density expected for a 10% efficient solar-to-fuels conversion device. Utilizing the aforementioned surface area measurements, one can determine electrocatalyst turnover frequencies. The reported protocol was used to examine the oxygen-evolution activity of the following systems in acidic and alkaline solutions: CoO(x), CoPi, CoFeO(x), NiO(x), NiCeO(x), NiCoO(x), NiCuO(x), NiFeO(x), and NiLaO(x). The oxygen-evolving activity of an electrodeposited IrO(x) catalyst was also investigated for comparison. Two general observations are made from comparing the catalytic performance of the OER catalysts investigated: (1) in alkaline solution, every non-noble metal system achieved 10 mA cm(-2) current densities at similar operating overpotentials between 0.35 and 0.43 V, and (2) every system but IrO(x) was unstable under oxidative conditions in acidic solutions. Show more

Water electrolysis is considered as the most promising technology for hydrogen production. Much research has been devoted to developing efficient electrocatalysts for hydrogen production via the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen production via the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The optimum electrocatalysts can drive down the energy costs needed for water splitting via lowering the overpotential. A number of cobalt (Co)-based materials have been developed over past years as non-noble-metal heterogeneous electrocatalysts for HER and OER. Recent progress in this field is summarized here, especially highlighting several important bifunctional catalysts. Various approaches to improve or optimize the electrocatalysts are introduced. Finally, the current existing challenges and the future working directions for enhancing the performance of Co-implicated electrocatalysts are proposed. Show more