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Vacancy engineering induced reaction kinetics enhancement of cobalt metaphosphate for pH-universal hydrogen evolution

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Abstract

Develo** efficient pH-universal hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalysts is critical in the field of water electrolysis, however, which is severely hampered by the sluggish kinetics in alkaline media. Herein, a ruthenium (Ru) incorporation induced vacancy engineering strategy is firstly proposed to precisely construct oxygen vacancy (VO)-riched cobalt-ruthenium metaphosphate (CRPO) for high-efficiency pH-universal HER. The VO modifies the electronic structure, improves the superficial hydrophilic and gas spillover capacity, it also reduces the coordination number of Ru atoms and regulates the coordination environment. Theoretical calculations indicate that Ru tends to adsorb H2O and H*, whereas VO tends to adsorb OH−, which greatly promotes the H2O adsorption and the dissociation of HO–H bond. Ultimately, CRPO-2 exhibits remarkable HER performance, the mass activity is about 18.34, 21.73, and 38.07 times higher than that of Pt/C in acidic, neutral, and alkaline media, respectively, at the same time maintain excellent stability. Our findings may pave a new avenue for the rational design of electrocatalysts toward pH-universal water electrolysis.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21721003, 22202080, and 22034006).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Electroanalytical Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130022, China

    Yuting Chen, Tian Meng, Zhicai **ng, Yueying Yan, Yang Yang, Bohan Yao, Dewen Wang & **urong Yang

  2. School of Applied Chemistry and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Yuting Chen, Tian Meng, Yueying Yan, Yang Yang, Bohan Yao & **urong Yang

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  1. Yuting Chen
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  2. Tian Meng
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  3. Zhicai **ng
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  5. Yang Yang
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  7. Dewen Wang
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  8. **urong Yang
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Correspondence to Dewen Wang or **urong Yang.

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Chen, Y., Meng, T., **ng, Z. et al. Vacancy engineering induced reaction kinetics enhancement of cobalt metaphosphate for pH-universal hydrogen evolution. Nano Res. 17, 3879–3887 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-6372-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-6372-9

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