Interfacial Chemical Bond Modulation of Co<sub>3</sub>(PO<sub>4</sub>)<sub>2</sub>-MoO<sub>3–<i>x</i></sub> Heterostructures for Alkaline Water/Seawater Splitting
Mei Yang, Beibei Shi, Yili Tang, Hongxiu Lu, Gang Wang, Shilin Zhang, Muhammad Tariq Sarwar, Aidong Tang, Liangjie Fu, Mingjie Wu, Huaming Yang
Abstract
The development of a high current density with high energy conversion efficiency electrocatalyst is vital for large-scale industrial application of alkaline water splitting, particularly seawater splitting. Herein, we design a self-supporting Co 3 (PO 4 ) 2 -MoO 3– x /CoMoO 4 /NF superaerophobic electrode with a three-dimensional structure for high-performance hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) by a reasonable devise of possible “Co-O-Mo hybridization” on the interface. The “Co-O-Mo hybridization” interfaces induce charge transfer and generation of fresh oxygen vacancy active sites. Consequently, the unique heterostructures greatly facilitate the dissociation process of H 2 O molecules and enable efficient hydrogen spillover, leading to excellent HER performance with ultralow overpotentials (76 and 130 mV at 100 and 500 mA cm –2 ) and long-term durability of 100 h in an alkaline electrolyte. Theoretical calculations reveal that the Co 3 (PO 4 ) 2 -MoO 3– x /CoMoO 4 /NF promotes the adsorption/dissociation process of H 2 O molecules to play a crucial role in improving the stability and activity of HER. Our results exhibit that the HER activity of non-noble metal electrocatalysts can be greatly enhanced by rational interfacial chemical bonding to modulate the heterostructures.