Nanosheet Arrays Research Articles

Activating and optimizing the In-Plane interface of 1 T/2H MoS2 for efficient hydrogen evolution reaction

Implanting the octahedral phase (1 T) into the hexagonal phase (2H) of the molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) matrix is considered one of the effective methods to enhance hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) performances of MoS2. In this paper, hybrid 1 T/2H MoS2 nanosheets array was successfully grown on conductive carbon cloth (1 T/2H MoS2/CC) via facile hydrothermal method and the 1 T phase content in 1 T/2H MoS2 is regulated to gradually increase from 0 % to 80 %. 1 T/2H MoS2/CC with 75 % 1 T phase content exhibits optimal HER performances. The DFT calculation results show that S atoms in 1 T/2H MoS2 interface exhibit the lowest hydrogen adsorption Gibbs free energies (ΔGH*) compared with other sites. The improvement of HER performances are primarily attributed to activating the in-plane interface regions of the hybrid 1 T/2H MoS2 nanosheets. Furthermore, the relationship between 1 T MoS2 content in 1 T/2H MoS2 and catalytic activity was simulated by a mathematical model, which shows that the catalytic activity presents a trend of increasing and then decreasing with the increase of 1 T phase content.

Preparation and characterization of PMT-TiO2-NTs@NiO–C/Sn–Sb composite electrodes by a two-step pulsed electrodeposition method for the degradation of crystalline violet

To overcome the limitations imposed by Sn–Sb electrodes, the titanium foam (PMT)-TiO2-NTs@NiO–C/Sn–Sb composite electrodes with cubic crystal structure are synthesized by introducing NiO@C nanosheet arrays interlayer on the TiO2-NTs/PMT matrix through hydrothermal and carbonization process. Then a two-step pulsed electrodeposition method is used to prepare the Sn–Sb coating. Benefiting from the advantages of stacked 2D layer-sheet structure, the obtained electrodes exhibit enhanced stability and conductivity. Synergy of inner and outer layers fabricated by different pulse times strongly influence the electrochemical catalytic properties of the PMT-TiO2-NTs@NiO–C/Sn–Sb (Sn–Sb) electrode. Hence, the Sn–Sb (b0.5 h + w1 h) electrode is the optimal electrode to degrade the Crystalline Violet (CV). Next, the effect of the four experimental parameters (initial CV concentration, current density, pH value and supporting electrolyte concentration) on the degradation of CV by the electrode are investigated. The degradation of the CV is more sensitive to alkaline pH, and the rapid decolorization of CV when the pH is 10. Moreover, the possible electrocatalytic degradation pathway of CV is performed using HPLC-MS. Results from the tests show that the PMT-TiO2-NTs/NiO@C/Sn–Sb (b0.5 h + w1 h) electrode is an interesting alternative material in industrial wastewater applications.

Rational design of tungsten-doped cobalt molybdate nanosheet arrays for highly active ethanol-assisted hydrogen production

Ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR) is a promising substituent to the conventional oxygen evolution reaction (OER) for highly active and energy-saving hydrogen production. The rational design of bifunctional electrocatalysts to achieve ethanol-assisted water splitting is important, but still maintains challenge. Herein, we successfully synthesize a tungsten (W) doped cobalt molybdate nanosheet arrays on porous copper foam by one-step hydrothermal method (W–CoMoO4/CF). The synthesized W–CoMoO4/CF shows the morphology of neatly stacked cobblestone nanosheets with high surface area and improved reaction kinetics, leading to substantial bifunctional catalytic activity for EOR/hydrogen evolution reactions (HER). To reach a current density of 100 mA cm−2, only an overpotential of 102 mV is demanded when using W–CoMoO4/CF as an electrode for HER, while a potential of 1.40 V is required for EOR. Moreover, the ethanol-assisted water electrolyzer is constructed by using W–CoMoO4/CF as both anode/cathode, which requires a small total voltage of 1.54 V to achieve 100 mA cm−2 and could run steadily for 12 h, revealing its excellent application prospects. This study provides a promising guidance for the development of high-valence metal modified bimetallic oxides for hydrogen generation.

Active sites and intermediates adsorption regulation of Ni5P4 porous nanosheets arrays through Ce doping toward efficient electrocatalytic overall water splitting

The development of non-noble metal-based bifunctional electrocatalysts toward overall water splitting is urgent recently. However, their catalytic activity is still limited by the insufficient active sites and unsatisfactory adsorption toward reaction intermediates. Here, a self-supported rare earth Ce-doped Ni5P4 porous nanosheets array is designed as an efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst, which requires a competitive overall water splitting potential of 1.56 V to drive the current density of 10 mA/cm2 under alkaline condition. It is shown that the introduction of Ce can greatly reduce the charge transfer resistance and increase the active sites of Ni5P4, which promotes fast charge transfer and facilitates the kinetics to maintain high catalytic activity. Especially, systematic DFT theoretical calculation is further conducted to study the electrocatalytic process, and it is shown that Ce doping can regulate the center of the d band and adsorption of reaction intermediates, thus reducing the overall speed-decisive step of water splitting reaction. This work demonstrates an efficient strategy for enhancing the overall water splitting properties of bifunctional electrocatalysts through rare earth Ce doping, which also has guiding significance for the study of electrocatalytic mechanism in atomic scale.

ZnCoMo nanorods modified with MoS2 nanosheets for supercapacitors and hydrogen evolution reaction

The preparation of dual-function nanomaterial electrode can meet the requirements of supercapacitor energy storage and the hydrogen emission reaction (HER), which makes the integrated design of energy reserves and hydrogen evolution possible. In this article, a two-step hydrothermal way that was consolidated with a continuous annealing process was used to build a graded mesoporous ZnCoMo@MoS2 nanocomposite electrode on the nickel foam framework. The entire surface of uniform ZnCoMo nanorods is tightly wrapped by MoS2 nanosheet arrays to form core-shell nanostructured electrodes, exposing the entire electrode's large specific surface area. Among them, oxide ZnCoMo is metalled by zinc cobalt molybdenum hybrid for short. The core-sheath nanostructure of the composite ZnCoMo@MoS2 It has high specific capacitance. The maximum accurate capacitance of this method is 1005.3 F g−1 (current density is 10mA/cm2). Under the condition of 50 mA/cm2, after 3000 cycles of discharge tests and charge, the capacity remains at 87.9% and the cycle stability is good. In addition, ZnCoMo@MoS2 nanocomposite electrode's overpotential is 125 mV at 10 mA/cm2 for hydrogen development in alkaline electrolyte and it has good stability. Lower overpotential and the larger specific capacitance are imputed to the synergistic result of MoS2 nanocomposites and ZnCoMo mainly. The results show that ZnCoMo@MoS2 core-shell heterostructure has high energy storage density and good hydrogen evolution performance, which provides a promising multi-functional active material for energy storage and hydrogen evolution.

Electronic and Vacancy Engineering of Mo–RuCoOx Nanoarrays for High‐Efficiency Water Splitting

AbstractExploring efficient strategies to achieve novel high‐efficiency catalysts for water splitting is of great significance to develop hydrogen energy technology. Herein, unique molybdenum (Mo)‐doped ruthenium–cobalt oxide (Mo–RuCoOx) nanosheet arrays are prepared as a high‐performance bifunctional electrocatalyst toward hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) through combining electronic and vacancy engineering. Theoretical calculations and experimental results reveal that the incorporation of Ru and Mo can effectively tune the electronic structure, and the controllable Mo dissolution coupling with the oxygen vacancy generation during surface reconstruction is able to optimize the adsorption energy of hydrogen/oxygen intermediates, thus greatly accelerating the kinetics for both HER and OER. As a result, the Mo–RuCoOx nanoarrays exhibit remarkably low overpotentials of 41 and 156 mV at 10 mA cm−2 for HER and OER in 1 m KOH, respectively. Furthermore, the two‐electrode electrolyzer assembled by the Mo–RuCoOx nanoarrays requires a cell voltage as low as 1.457 V to achieve 10 mA cm−2 for alkaline overall water splitting. This work holds great promise to develop novel and highly active electrocatalysts for future energy conversion applications.

Niobium and Fluorine Dually Doped Titanium Oxide Nanosheet Arrays for Selective Dual-Band Electrochromic Applications

Dual-band electrochromic (EC) films selectively modulating visible (VIS) and near-infrared (NIR) light promise an attractive option for efficiently utilizing solar energy. Anatase titanium dioxide (TiO2) promises dual-band EC capability; however, it suffers from the difficulty in circumventing the obstacle in the NIR region and sluggish reaction kinetics as well as poor cycling stability. In this work, 2D (Nb, F) co-doped TiO2 nanosheets (NSs) arrays are reported as an effective single-component dual-band EC material. The co-doping can induce an oriented growth of freestanding ultrathin NSs with exposed (001) facets which promote the EC reaction kinetics. The high aspect ratio and orientation of the nanosheets favor the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) effect triggered by electrochemical bias voltages, thus achieving independent modulation of the NIR transmittance. Three application scenarios of the NSs can be presented based on selective, efficient, and high optical modulation in the NIR and VIS regions (79.5% at 700 nm and 78.4% at 1300 nm, respectively), unprecedented fast bleaching/coloring times (3.0/8.4 s), and a long cycle life (500 cycles). Moreover, the films exhibit multi-color EC and energy storage materials. This work may provide an insight into the single-component dual-band EC mechanism of 2D TiO2 nanostructures and present promising potential for energy saving and smart display applications.

Interface engineered Zn/Co-S@CeO2 heterostructured nanosheet arrays as efficient electrodes for supercapacitors

Bimetallic sulfides with superior electrochemical activity are extensively explored as electrode materials for electrochemical energy related applications. However, their utilizations are impeded due to unfavorable faradaic reaction kinetics and poor electrochemical stability. To overcome these defects, this study reports interface engineering of heterogeneous nanosheet arrays on Ni foam (NF) through surface modification of metal-organic framework (MOF)-derived zinc cobalt sulfide (Zn/Co-S) with CeO2 nanoparticles (NPs). MOF-derived porous Zn/Co-S nanosheets have highly exposed electrochemical active sites and abundant channels for charge transport. The strong interfacial coupling between Zn/Co-S and defective CeO2 leads to fast charge transfer, thereby improving electrochemical activity. The CeO2 can also prevent Zn/Co-S from degrading in KOH solution. Moreover, the self-supported electrode shows high electronic conductivity and strong adhesion with the conductive substrate. Therefore, the specific capacity and electrochemical stability of resulting Zn/[email protected]2/NF are significantly higher compared with Zn/Co-S/NF. Furthermore, an asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC) based on Zn/[email protected]2/NF and activated carbon (AC) exhibits high energy storage capability (42.4 Wh kg−1) and outstanding operating durability (91.1 % after 8000 cycles). These results demonstrate that the as-prepared electrode is a superior candidate for electrochemical devices.

A two-in-one design realized by metal-organic framework nanosheets for dendrite-free and durable lithium-sulfur batteries

The overgrowth of dendrites and polysulfide shuttle are the most critical bottlenecks preventing the extensive application of lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries. In this work, we report a two-in-one design of a self-supporting anode and a modified separator based on metal-organic framework (MOF) Co-1,4-benzenedicarboxylate (Co-BDC) nanosheets for these challenges. On one aspect, the MOF-derivative Co-N-C nanosheets arrays supported on carbon cloth, which are obtained by the ammonia treatment of Co-MOF nanosheets, provide sufficient Li nucleation sites for avoiding dendrite growth and internal space for buffering the volume change during Li plating/stripping. On the other aspect, the MOF functionalized polypropylene separator effectively restrains the polysulfide shuttle through its adsorption and electrocatalytic effects towards polysulfide. As a result, the batteries with this MOF-based anode and separator exhibit an initial capacity of 630 mAh g−1 and an extraordinary cycle performance with an extremely low decay of 0.024 % over 1000 cycles at 5 C. Moreover, remarkable cycling stability and rate capability under enhanced sulfur loadings with reduced electrolyte content are also achieved. This study provides fresh insights into the material design for advanced Li-S batteries.

Heterogeneous interface engineering of high-density MOFs-derived Co nanoparticles anchored on N-doped RGO toward wide-frequency electromagnetic wave absorption

Facing increasing electromagnetic (EM) wave pollution and interference issues, developing synergy EM wave absorption materials with rich heterogeneous interfaces is s an effective way to solve the above problems. In this work, two-dimensional (2D) cobalt-based metal-organic frameworks (Co-MOFs) nanosheets arrays are firstly growth on the 2D graphene oxide (GO) sheets. After undergoing the pyrolytic treatment in the N2 atmosphere, high-density MOFs-derived 0D Co nanoparticles (NPs) uniformly anchored on the Nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide (N-RGO), constructing 0D/2D magnetic-dielectric Co@N-RGO composites. By tuning the size of magnetic Co NPs by controlling the content of Co-MOFs nanosheets, the EM parameters and impedance match of Co@N-RGO sheets can be regulated to tune the EM wave absorption ability. Benefited from the synergy loss and high-density heterogeneous interfaces, obtained Co@N-RGO sheets exhibit excellent EM wave absorption intensity and tuning absorption frequency. The effective absorption bandwidth of the Co@N-RGO sheets ups to 6.0 GHz at 1.9 mm thickness, covering the entire Ku band (12–18 GHz). It can be concluded that constructing magnetic-dielectric system and high-density heterogeneous interfaces provides a new guide to obtain wide-frequency EM wave absorption materials.

In situ generation of FeOOH/NiOOH interface in FeS2/NiS2 nanosheets through deep reconstruction for efficient oxygen evolution reaction

Transition metal sulfides (TMSs) for electrochemical water splitting undergo significant self-reconstruction to form actual active species favorable for high oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performance. However, the complete self-reconstruction of most reported TMSs in alkaline media is unfrequent and the active species cannot be efficiently used. Herein, self-supported FeS2/NiS2 nanosheet arrays (FeNiS) are deliberately fabricated as pre-catalysts and then accomplished deep phase transformation into low-crystalline and ultrathin FeOOH/NiOOH (FeNiS-R) nanosheets favorable to alkaline OER. Various ex situ characterization studies uncover that the FeNiS-R with abundant interfaces is generated via complete reconstruction during electrolysis and the high-valence Fe and Ni in the FeNiS-R interface are the real active sites for high OER activity. The reconstructed FeNiS-R exhibits a small overpotential of 290 mV at 100 mA cm−2 and favorable durability (≥80 h), much superior to commercial benchmark IrO2. This work provides a promising avenue to achieve the deep reconstruction of TMSs and the targeted design of OER catalysts in energy devices.

Sulfur scrambling assisted in-situ growth of 3D - hierarchical FeNi2S4@Mo-doped Ni3S2/NF nanosheet arrays: A stellar performer towards alkaline water electrolysis

Industrial alkaline water electrolysis is facing major difficulties in developing inexpensive, abundant and active bifunctional non-noble metal electrocatalysts. Herein, a heterogeneous three-dimensional (3D) FeNi2S4@Mo-doped Ni3S2/NF heterostructure electrocatalyst is synthesized by a controlled two-step hydrothermal method. Based on the unique structural advantages, the number of redox active sites and the conductivity of the heterostructure electrode are improved remarkably resulting the shortening of ion diffusion path, effective penetration of the electrolyte and decrease in equivalent series resistance. The electrode achieves 10 mA cm−2 current density in hydrogen evolution reaction and oxygen evolution reaction at ∼121 and 150 mV overpotential, respectively in alkaline solution. The bifunctional electrochemical performance of the heterostructure is confirmed from the low cell voltage of 1.501 V and higher stability in overall water electrolysis. This work provides a useful strategy to tune the electrocatalytic performance by doping engineering and hetero-interface formation that offers an efficient self-supported 3D heterostructure electrode material for overall water electrolysis.

NiFeCr–S/NiS/NF with modified 2D nanosheet array as bifunctional electrocatalysts for overall water splitting

Hetero-structured NiFeCr–S/NiS nanosheet arrays supported on nickel foam (NiFeCr–S/NiS/NF) were prepared by sulfurizing the hetero-structured hybrid of NiFeCr-layered double hydroxides/NiS/NF (NiFeCr-LDH/NiS/NF) through sequential hydrothermal method and vapour deposition method. Benefiting from the abundant NiS/NiFeCr–S interfaces and the two-dimensional nanosheet structure, the as-prepared catalyst displays an overpotential at 10 mA cm−2 of 94 mV for oxygen evolution reaction and 131 mV for hydrogen evolution reaction, respectively, which is better than the non-sulfurized NiFeCr-LDH/NiS/NF and NiFeCr-LDHs/NF, as well as the sulfurized NiFeCr–S/NF and NiS/NF. In the self-assembled device using NiFeCr–S/NiS/NF as both cathode and anode, the overall water splitting reaction can be driven at 1.53 V of cell voltage to achieve the current density of 10 mA cm−2.

Engineering Cationic Vacancies in Octahedral Sites of Co3O4 for High-Efficiency Oxygen Evolution

The octahedral sites in Co3O4 usually possess better oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity, which have been identified as the active sites. Atomic cationic vacancy defects can elicit localized electron redistribution to regulate the electronic structure of the host materials. In this paper, Co3O4 nanosheet arrays with cationic vacancies at octahedral sites (Vx-Co3O4) have been synthesized by a facile three-step reaction process. Density functional theory (DFT) computational results further indicate that the cationic vacancies can increase the number of electrons per Co atom and optimize the adsorption energy of the intermediate product. As a result, the optimized V0.3-Co3O4/CC electrode with abundant cationic vacancies displays excellent OER performance in alkaline electrolytes with an overpotential of 240 mV at 10 mA cm–2, Tafel slope of 72.2 mV dec–1, and superior stability, which are much better than those of the pure Co3O4 and commercial IrO2.

Filling and coating nickel foam with N-doped biomass-char to anchor Ni0.33Co0.67MoO4 nanosheet arrays for enhanced supercapacitive performance

Filling and coating nickel foam with N-doped biomass-char to anchor Ni0.33Co0.67MoO4 nanosheet arrays for enhanced supercapacitive performance

Parallel arrays of clay nanosheets sandwiched in two-dimensional nanofluidic membrane for enhanced ion transport properties

High ion selectivity and high structural stability have always been the pursuit of nanofluidic ion exchange membranes but they are often trade-offs. Herein, we built a sandwich structure by introducing parallel arrays of clay nanosheets in two-dimensional nanofluidic membrane to improve the ion transport performance. The introduction of an appropriate amount of clay nanosheets can not only redistributes internal stress and thereby increases the tensile strength but also provides higher surface charge density and thereby effectively increases ion selectivity of the membrane. The current density obtained from the sandwich structure membrane is ∼5 times than that of the homogeneous membrane and the cation mobility can reach a maximum of 0.98. When simulating the energy conversion of seawater and river water, the maximum output power density achieved through the membrane is 0.70 W m−2, which is increased by ∼6 times. Interestingly, it significantly weakens the internal resistance from 100 to 30 kΩ and the energy barriers from 4.56 to 2.13 kJ mol−1 of ion permeation in the entire regime although the clay nanosheets arrays increases the thickness of the membrane. This strategy of introducing negatively charged nanosheets of natural minerals to enhance ion transport properties provides a new idea for the enhancement and application of salinity gradient energy harvesting membranes.

One-spot autogenous formation of crystalline-amorphous Ni3S2/NiFeOxHy heterostructure nanosheets array for synergistically boosted oxygen evolution reaction

We proposed a convenient heterostructure engineering strategy to integrate ultra-small Nickel sulfide (Ni3S2) laminar nanocrystallines and amorphous NiFe-(oxy) hydroxides (NiFeOxHy) nanosheets as three-dimensional (3D) freestanding catalyst to regulate electric conductivity and boost mass transport by one-step hydrothermal method. These super-hydrophilic Ni3S2/NiFeOxHy heterostructure nanosheets with large specific surfaces can create strongly synergistic couplings of accessible active sites at the interfaces, expedite the electrolyte penetration and make gas bubbles to rapidly release the surface, significantly facilitating intrinsic the kinetics for oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Intriguingly, the self-supported Ni3S2/NiFeOxHy heterostructure nanosheets array displays remarkable OER activity with ultralow overpotentials of only 209 and 243 mV at 50 and 100 mA cm−2, small Tafel slope of 79.8 mV dec−1, as well as good stability up to 55 h. Also, the Ni3S2/NiFeOxHy heterostructure demonstrates an acceptable activity for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) delivered 10 mA cm−2 at an overpotential of 172 mV. In addition, the Ni3S2/NiFeOxHy can also be served as bifunctional electrocatalyst assembled in a two-electrode configuration with a perfect voltage of 1.32 V to reach 10 mA cm−2 under industrial condition at 85 °C in 6 M KOH for overall water splitting.

Effectively enhanced activity of hydrogen evolution through strong interfacial coupling on SnS2/MoS2/Ni3S2 heterostructured porous nanosheets

Designing electrocatalysts appropriately is of great significance for the sustainable development of hydrogen evolution technology under alkaline water electrolysis. However, engineering the active site at the surface interface in order to improve the catalytic activity of the catalyst has been a great challenge. Herein, an interface engineering heterojunction consisting of SnS2 nanoparticles anchored on a MoS2/Ni3S2 porous nanosheet array is developed. The three-dimensional (3D) MoS2/Ni3S2 nanosheet arrays can uniformly restrict the SnS2 nanoparticle agglomeration, and contribute significantly to the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) performance. The introduction of Sn can protect the 3D structure of MoS2/Ni3S2 nanosheet arrays from damage. Additionally, the strong coupling between SnS2, MoS2 and Ni3S2 facilitates charge transfer, thereby enabling fast reaction kinetics at the three-phase heterointerface. The resulting SnS2/MoS2/Ni3S2/NF electrocatalysts exhibit excellent HER performance, requiring only 232 mV overpotential to drive a current density of 100 mA cm−2, and can operate continuously for at least 100 h to achieve long-term stability. This study potentially provides a new channel for rationally establishing multi-phase heterointerfaces to achieve high-performance, long-term stable HER electrocatalysts.

Cobalt-doped ZnAl-LDH nanosheet arrays as recyclable piezo-catalysts for effective activation of peroxymonosulfate to degrade norfloxacin: non-radical pathways and theoretical calculation studies

Peroxymonosulfate-based advanced oxidation processes (PMS-AOPs) are considered promising technologies for the degradation of recalcitrant norfloxacin in wastewater. However, this technology exhibits sluggish carrier transport and slow regeneration of the catalytic center. In this study, cobalt-doped ZnAl-layered double hydroxides (ZnAl-LDH) were synthesized as recoverable piezoelectric catalysts for efficient activation of PMS. The cobalt-doped ZnAl-LDH (0.06 mmol cobalt) demonstrated the most effective degradation performance within 15 min, achieving a degradation efficiency of 91.50% and a rate constant of 0.1644 min−1. The constructed piezoelectric catalytic system was mainly based on a non-radical mechanism, including singlet oxygen (1O2) and electron transport. Notably, the remarkable piezoelectric properties of the catalyst accelerated carrier transport and promoted regeneration of the catalytic active center (Co2+). The remarkable structural stability of the catalyst not only resulted in a significant reduction of Co leaching, but also enabled its successful adaptation to complex aqueous environments. This study provides non-negligible importance for future research on the structure and mechanism of piezoelectric catalysts used for PMS activation.

Interface engineering assisted Fe-Ni3S2/Ni2P heterostructure as a high-performance bifunctional electrocatalyst for OER and HER

Rational development and construction of electrochemical water splitting catalysts with excellent activity and super-durability utilizing earth-abundant elements are extremely desirable and imperative for energy crisis. Herein, a self-supported hierarchical Fe-doped nickel sulfide/nickel phosphide (nanoflower-linked nanosheet arrays grown vertically on nickel foam) heterostructure electrocatalyst was obtained via a successive structural transformation to realize high-efficiency alkaline OER and HER performance. Benefiting from the novel nanoflower-sheet crosslinked structure on NF, electronic coupling reconstruction and abundant edge sites, as-synthesized Fe-Ni3S2/Ni2P electrocatalyst exhibits remarkable electrocatalytic OER and HER activity in both low and high current density regions. Specifically, the Fe-Ni3S2/Ni2P electrode achieved low overpotentials of 172, 277 and 357 mV at current densities of 10, 50 and 100 mA·cm−2 for OER, respectively. A series of experimental results confirmed that the surface reconfiguration behavior of Fe-Ni3S2/Ni2P heterostructure led to the formation of amorphous M-OH bond system, which was answerable to the prominent OER catalyst properties. This work confirms the potential of designing robust bifunctional electrocatalysts for alkaline water electrocatalysis by carefully combining doping engineering as well as interfacial effects.