Issue 9, 2024

Single-atom Co dispersed on polyoxometalate derivatives confined in bamboo-like carbon nanotubes enabling efficient dual-site lattice oxygen mediated oxygen evolution electrocatalysis for acidic water electrolyzers

Abstract

The development of efficient and durable earth-abundant electrocatalysts for the acidic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is crucial for the large-scale application of proton exchange membrane water electrolyzers (PEMWEs). Here, we report a novel amorphous Mo–Ce oxide supported single-atom Co (CoSA-MoCeOx) encapsulated in bamboo-like carbon nanotubes (BCTs) catalysts for the acidic OER. Operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy confirms that the Mo–Ce oxide can promote the transformation of Co2+ sites into Co3+–O sites with lower coordination number and abundant oxygen vacancies at a low voltage, leading to a dual-metal-site lattice oxygen-mediated (LOM) pathway with fast OER kinetics. Moreover, the confinement effect of BCTs on CoSA-MoCeOx can reduce the direct contact between the catalyst and the acid, thus improving its corrosion resistance. The optimized catalyst exhibits a low overpotential of 239 mV for the OER at 10 mA cm−2 in 0.5 M H2SO4 and maintains exceptional stability for more than 60 hours in PEMWEs, representing one of the best non-noble metal catalysts. Density functional theory calculations show that the strong interaction between single-atom Co sites and Mo–Ce oxide reduces the adsorption energy barrier of the LOM pathway from 1.60 eV to 1.08 eV, and inhibits the dissolution of the support with the increased vacancy formation energy of Mo, thus improving the OER activity and stability of the catalyst in acid.

Graphical abstract: Single-atom Co dispersed on polyoxometalate derivatives confined in bamboo-like carbon nanotubes enabling efficient dual-site lattice oxygen mediated oxygen evolution electrocatalysis for acidic water electrolyzers

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
12 Jan 2024
Accepted
26 Mar 2024
First published
27 Mar 2024

Energy Environ. Sci., 2024,17, 3088-3098

Single-atom Co dispersed on polyoxometalate derivatives confined in bamboo-like carbon nanotubes enabling efficient dual-site lattice oxygen mediated oxygen evolution electrocatalysis for acidic water electrolyzers

J. Liu, T. Wang, Z. Lin, M. Liao, S. Liu, S. Wang, Z. Cai, H. Sun, Y. Shen, Y. Huang and Q. Li, Energy Environ. Sci., 2024, 17, 3088 DOI: 10.1039/D4EE00173G

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