Special NaBH4 hydrolysis achieving multiple-surface-modifications promotes the high-throughput water oxidation of CoN nanowire arrays

Abstract

Designing an excellent OER catalyst in an alkaline environment is severe yet essential for industrial H₂ application under the electrochemical technique. This study has achieved multiple modifications on CoN nanowires, the classic OER catalyst, via a facile room-temperature NaBH₄ spontaneous hydrolysis. This facile process simultaneously generates oxygen vacancies and robust BN species. It wraps hydrophilic BO_x motifs on the OER response CoN nanowires, producing OER active Co–N–B species, increasing active numbers and guaranteeing structural stability. It suggests that a low NaBH₄ concentration (0.1 mol L⁻¹) treatment endows CoN_NWAs/CC with excellent OER performance and robust structure, which can drive a current density of 50 mA cm⁻² with only 325 mV overpotentials with more than 24 hours’ durability. Even, the catalyst can drive 1000 mA cm⁻² around 480 mV overpotential. This study allows a novel strategy for designing high-performance OER catalysts.