Metal‐Organic‐Framework‐derived Co Nanoparticles Embedded in P, N‐Dual‐doped Porous Carbon/rGO Catalyst for Water Splitting and Oxygen Reduction

Abstract

AbstractCo nanoparticles embedded in P, N ‐dual doped porous carbon/rGO (P, N‐PCCo/rGO) were obtained through electrostatic interaction and high‐temperature pyrolysis with good electrical conductivity and ultrahigh specific surface area. At a current density of 10 mA cm−2, the overpotentials of P,N‐PCCo/rGO during acidic hydrogen evolution (HER) and alkaline oxygen evolution (OER) are 89 mV and 235 mV, respectively. The performance is significantly enhanced with increasing current density, even better than commercial Pt/C and IrO2 in electrocatalytic water splitting. Besides, P,N‐PCCo/rGO have a large half‐wave potential (∼0.872 V) and kinetic current Jk (11.76 mA cm−2) for oxygen evolution reaction (ORR). GO together with porous carbon constrains the growth of Co particles based on assisted synthesis. P, N co‐doped Co particles cause lattice defects of carbon, which form multiple active sites and provide more reaction channels for active species, thereby improving the HER, OER and ORR performance of the P,N‐PCCo/rGO trifunctional catalyst. GO‐assisted preparation of ultra‐thin porous P,N‐PCCo/rGO samples has laid a solid foundation for designing and implementing a series of multifunctional catalysts for graphene oxide‐based heteroatoms (N, P, S, etc.) doped with non‐noble metal embedded porous carbon.