Interconnected phosphorus-doped CoO-nanoparticles nanotube with three-dimensional accessible surface enables high-performance electrochemical oxidation

Qi Hu, Bin Zhu, Guomin Li, Xiufang Liu, Hengpan Yang, Chris D. Sewell, Qianling Zhang, Jianhong Liu, Chuanxin He, Zhiqun Lin

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

47 Scopus citations

Abstract

The ability to create nanomaterials with hollow micro- or nanostructures renders their applications in fields such as catalysis, controlled delivery and lightweight composites. Herein, we report a simple three-step route to Cu2O/Cu nanotubes populated by interconnected, phosphorus-doped CoO nanoparticles (denoted P–CoO–Cu2O/Cu-NTs). They possess three-dimensional (3D) accessible surface, thereby greatly favoring the exposure of active sites and electrolyte transport for efficient electrocatalysis. Notably, the integrated electrochemical tests and theoretical calculation reveal that the P-doping imparts the optimization of the electronic structures of CoO, enhancing its conductivity, facilitating the in-situ formation of active CoOOH species during oxygen evolution reaction (OER), and suitably regulating free energy for adsorption of the OER intermediates. Consequently, the P–CoO–Cu2O/Cu-NTs exhibit outstanding performance for OER and urea oxidation reaction (UOR) with the overpotential of 261 mV and potential of 1.43 V vs RHE, respectively, at 10 mA cm−2, outperforming most of non-precious metal electrocatalysts and RuO2. As such, the three-step approach involving the use of Cu nanowires as template to yield Cu2O/Cu nanotubular yet porous scaffold may stand out as a robust strategy for judicious crafting of interconnected heteroatom-doped metal oxides for high-performance electrocatalysis.

Original languageEnglish
Article number104194
JournalNano Energy
Volume66
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2019

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019

Keywords

  • Nanotubes
  • Oxygen evolution reaction
  • Phosphorus doping
  • Three-dimensional accessible surface
  • Urea oxidation reaction

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