Newly designed microporous organic-inorganic hybrid cobalt phosphonate for hydrogen evolution reaction

Abstract

The electrochemical water splitting through hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is a promising technique for generating clean hydrogen as alternative energy to fossil fuel. In recent times, various kinds of cobalt-based materials have been synthesized for hydrogen evolution reactions due to their good catalytic activity, robust structure and stability. New microporous organic-inorganic hybrid cobalt phosphonate material (CoGLy) was developed by a hydrothermal reaction pathway without any structure-directing agent. The material has been characterized through important tools such as powder X-ray diffraction, Nitrogen sorption, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, High-resolution transmission electron microscopy, Field emission scanning electron microscope, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy technique. Notably, the material possesses a high specific surface area with a proper microporous channel, which are the key parameters for achieving excellent electrocatalytic activity towards HER. The as-synthesized CoGLy catalyst displays the high catalytic efficiency with the overpotential of 125 mV to acquire the current density of 10 mA cm−2 and low Tafel slope of 72 mV dec−1. Also, the CoGLy catalyst shows outstanding stability in chronoamperometry measurement up to 25 h time without significant change in current density.