Synergistic Effect Enables the Dual-Metal Doped Cobalt Telluride Particles as Potential Electrocatalysts for Oxygen Evolution in Alkaline Electrolyte
Xiaoxiao Jing, Jinyuan Dong, Yuguang Mao, Lingyan Zhou, Jiabao Ding, Huilong Dong, Linjuan Zhang, Yuxuan Zhang, Weifeng Zhang
Abstract
Cobalt (Co)-based materials have been widely investigated as hopeful noble-metal-free alternatives for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in alkaline electrolytes, which is crucial for generating hydrogen by water electrolysis. Herein, cobalt-based telluride particles with good electronic conductivity as anodic electrocatalysts were prepared under vacuum by the solid-state strategy, which display remarkable activities toward the OER. Nickel (Ni) and iron (Fe) codoped cobalt telluride (NiFe-CoTe) exhibits an overpotential of 321 mV to achieve a current density of 10 mA cm –2 and a Tafel slope of 51.8 mV dec –1, outperforming the performances of CoTe, CoTe 2, and IrO 2 . According to the DFT calculation, the adsorbed hydroxyl-assisted adsorbate evolution mechanism was proposed for the OER process of NiFe-CoTe, which reveals the synergetic effect toward OER induced by codoping of the Ni and Fe atoms. This work proposes a rational strategy to prepare cobalt-based tellurides as efficient OER catalysts in alkaline electrolytes, providing a new strategy to prepare and regulate metal-based tellurides for catalysis and beyond.