Abstract
Earth‐abundant transition‐metal‐based catalysts for electrochemical water splitting are critical for sustainable energy schemes. In this work, we use a rational design method for the synthesis of ultrasmall and highly dispersed bimetallic CoMo carbide/oxide particles deposited on graphene oxide. Thermal conversion of the molecular precursors [H3PMo12O40], Co(OAc)2 ⋅4 H2O and melamine in the presence of graphene oxide gives the mixed carbide/oxide (Co6Mo6C2/Co2Mo3O8) nanoparticle composite deposited on highly dispersed, N,P‐doped carbon. The resulting composite shows outstanding electrocatalytic water‐splitting activity for both the oxygen evolution and hydrogen evolution reaction, and superior performance to reference samples including commercial 20 % Pt/C & IrO2. Electrochemical and other materials analyses indicate that Co6Mo6C2 is the main active phase in the composite, and the N,P‐doping of the carbon matrix increases the catalytic activity. The facile design could in principle be extended to multiple bimetallic catalyst classes by tuning of the molecular metal oxide precursor.
Highlights
Electrochemical water splitting involving the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) at the cathode and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) at the anode is a promising energy conversion technology that can convert intermittent electricity into storable chemical energy, that is, H2
We propose a rational design method for the synthesis of ultrasmall N,P-doped carbon coated bimetallic CoMo carbides and oxides nanoparticles that are highly dispersed on N,P-doped reduced graphene oxide (NPRGO)
Scheme 1 shows the synthetic process for the composite materials
Summary
Few of these materials can be used as bifunctional catalysts, that is, to perform both OER and HER To address these issues, new, bimetallic oxides,[11,12,13,14] hydroxides,[15,16,17] carbides,[18,19] nitrides,[20] and phosphides[21,22] have been developed to improve reactivity and stability for full water splitting.[23]. When Co2+ is present in the system (i.e. samples 2, 3, 4, Figure 1), we note significant changes of the composition
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