Sulfurizing-Induced Hollowing of Co9S8 Microplates with Nanosheet Units for Highly Efficient Water Oxidation

Huan Liu; Fei-Xiang Ma; Cheng-Yan Xu; Li Yang; Yue Du; Pan-Pan Wang; Shuang Yang; Liang Zhen

doi:10.1021/acsami.7b00899

Sulfurizing-Induced Hollowing of Co₉S₈ Microplates with Nanosheet Units for Highly Efficient Water Oxidation

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2017 Apr 5;9(13):11634-11641. doi: 10.1021/acsami.7b00899. Epub 2017 Mar 24.

Authors

Huan Liu^{1

2}, Fei-Xiang Ma^{1

2}, Cheng-Yan Xu^{1

2}, Li Yang¹, Yue Du^{1

3}, Pan-Pan Wang^{1

2}, Shuang Yang^{1

2}, Liang Zhen^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology , Harbin 150001, China.
² MOE Key Laboratory of Micro-Systems and Micro-Structures Manufacturing, Harbin Institute of Technology , Harbin 150080, China.
³ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen Graduate School , Shenzhen 518055, China.

PMID: 28290657
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.7b00899

Abstract

Transition metal-based compounds are promising alternative nonprecious electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution to noble metals-based materials. Nanosheet-constructed hollow structures can efficiently promote the electrocatalystic activity, mainly because of their largely exposed active sites. Herein, hierarchical Co₉S₈ hollow microplates with nanosheet building units are fabricated via sulfurization and subsequent calcination of preformed Co-glycolate microplates. Benefiting from the advantages of a hollow structure, nanosheet units and high Co³⁺ content, Co₉S₈ hollow microplates exhibit remarkable catalytic property for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) with low overpotential of 278 mV to reach a current density of 10 mA cm^-2, a low Tafel slope of 53 mV dec^-1, and satisfied stability. This construction method of Co₉S₈ hierarchical hollow microplates composed of a nanosheet structure is an effective tactic for promoting OER performance of water splitting electrocatalysts.

Keywords: cobalt sulfide; electrocatalysis; hollow structures; nanosheets; oxygen evolution.