Heterostructured Inter‐Doped Ruthenium–Cobalt Oxide Hollow Nanosheet Arrays for Highly Efficient Overall Water Splitting

• Published in: Angewandte Chemie International Edition Vol. 59; no. 39; pp. 17219 - 17224
• Main Authors: Wang, Cheng, Qi, Limin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Weinheim Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 21.09.2020
• Edition: International ed. in English
• Subjects: Arrays; bifunctional catalysts; Catalysts; Cloth; Cobalt; Cobalt oxides; Electronic structure; Fabrication; hollow structures; Hydrogen evolution reactions; nanosheet arrays; Nanosheets; Oxygen evolution reactions; Ruthenium; ruthenium–cobalt oxide; Splitting; Stability; Water splitting
• ISSN: 1433-7851; 1521-3773; 1521-3773
• DOI: 10.1002/anie.202005436

The development of transition‐metal‐oxides (TMOs)‐based bifunctional catalysts toward efficient overall water splitting through delicate control of composition and structure is a challenging task. Herein, the rational design and controllable fabrication of unique heterostructured inter‐doped ruthenium–cobalt oxide [(Ru–Co)Ox] hollow nanosheet arrays on carbon cloth is reported. Benefiting from the desirable compositional and structural advantages of more exposed active sites, optimized electronic structure, and interfacial synergy effect, the (Ru–Co)Ox nanoarrays exhibited outstanding performance as a bifunctional catalyst. Particularly, the catalyst showed a remarkable hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity with an overpotential of 44.1 mV at 10 mA cm−2 and a small Tafel slope of 23.5 mV dec−1, as well as an excellent oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity with an overpotential of 171.2 mV at 10 mA cm−2. As a result, a very low cell voltage of 1.488 V was needed at 10 mA cm−2 for alkaline overall water splitting. Unique ruthenium–cobalt oxide [(Ru–Co)Ox] hollow nanosheet arrays with an inter‐doped heterostructure are prepared on carbon cloth via a facile MOF template‐based strategy. The (Ru–Co)Ox nanoarrays exhibit excellent catalytic activity for both the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER), indicating an outstanding bifunctional electrocatalyst for alkaline overall water splitting.