Dopant triggered atomic configuration activates water splitting to hydrogen

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 14; no. 1; p. 2306
• Main Authors: Wu, Rui, Xu, Jie, Zhao, Chuan-Lin, Su, Xiao-Zhi, Zhang, Xiao-Long, Zheng, Ya-Rong, Yang, Feng-Yi, Zheng, Xu-Sheng, Zhu, Jun-Fa, Luo, Jun, Li, Wei-Xue, Gao, Min-Rui, Yu, Shu-Hong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 21.04.2023; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 119/118; 140/146; 147/135; 147/137; 147/143; 639/301/299/886; 639/638/161/886; Catalysts; Catalytic activity; Chemical synthesis; Chemistry; Cobalt; Configurations; Diethylene triamine; Energy; Humanities and Social Sciences; Hydrogen; Hydrogen evolution reactions; Laboratories; Lead; Materials science; Morphology; multidisciplinary; Nanomaterials; Nanotechnology; Net zero; Oxidation; Phase transitions; Radiation; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Selenium; Sulfuric acid; Transmission electron microscopy; Volcanoes; Water splitting
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-37641-3

Finding highly efficient hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalysts is pertinent to the ultimate goal of transformation into a net-zero carbon emission society. The design principles for such HER catalysts lie in the well-known structure-property relationship, which guides the synthesis procedure that creates catalyst with target properties such as catalytic activity. Here we report a general strategy to synthesize 10 kinds of single-atom-doped CoSe 2 -DETA (DETA = diethylenetriamine) nanobelts. By systematically analyzing these products, we demonstrate a volcano-shape correlation between HER activity and Co atomic configuration (ratio of Co-N bonds to Co-Se bonds). Specifically, Pb-CoSe 2 -DETA catalyst reaches current density of 10 mA cm −2 at 74 mV in acidic electrolyte (0.5 M H 2 SO 4 , pH ~0.35). This striking catalytic performance can be attributed to its optimized Co atomic configuration induced by single-atom doping. Designing high performing low-cost nanomaterials for catalyzing hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) remains challenging. Here, the authors report a volcano-shape correlation between HER activity and cobalt atomic configuration in single-atom doped CoSe2-DETA (DETA = diethylenetriamine) nanobelts toward achieving high performance.