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Cited by 450Electrocatalysts for Energy ConversionCO2 Reduction Techniques and CatalystsAdvanced Photocatalysis Techniques

Activating cobalt(II) oxide nanorods for efficient electrocatalysis by strain engineering

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Ling, Tao, Yan, Dong-Yang, Wang, Hui, Jiao, Yan, Hu, Zhenpeng, Zheng, Yao, Zheng, Lirong, Mao, Jing +4 more·2017·Nature Communications
DOI 10.1038/s41467-017-01872-yPMC PMC5686154
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Abstract

Designing high-performance and cost-effective electrocatalysts toward oxygen evolution and hydrogen evolution reactions in water-alkali electrolyzers is pivotal for large-scale and sustainable hydrogen production. Earth-abundant transition metal oxide-based catalysts are particularly active for oxygen evolution reaction; however, they are generally considered inactive toward hydrogen evolution reaction. Here, we show that strain engineering of the outermost surface of cobalt(II) oxide nanorods can turn them into efficient electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction. They are competitive with the best electrocatalysts for this reaction in alkaline media so far. Our theoretical and experimental results demonstrate that the tensile strain strongly couples the atomic, electronic structure properties and the activity of the cobalt(II) oxide surface, which results in the creation of a large quantity of oxygen vacancies that facilitate water dissociation, and fine tunes the electronic structure to weaken hydrogen adsorption toward the optimum region.

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  • The change in electronic structure and lattice distortion due to the vacancies promotes the adsorption of H2O molecules and OH− groups on the catalyst surface which are favorable for electrocatalytic process.

    “also promotes the adsorption of H2O molecules and OH− groups on the catalyst surface which are favorable for electrocatalytic process [60–62]”

    From Rational design of Ru aerogel and RuCo aerogels with abundant oxygen vacancies for hydrogen evolution reaction, oxygen evolution reaction, and overall water splitting (2021) · cites this paper as [62]

    The Results section (page not specified), including Fig. 1a, shows H₂O adsorbing at oxygen vacancies on CoO, then dissociating so that OH occupies the vacancies. It does not show enhanced adsorption of OH⁻ groups; it attributes the electronic-structure change to tensile strain and links that change to weaker hydrogen adsorption, not increased H₂O or OH⁻ adsorption. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Ling, T., Yan, D.-Y., Wang, H., Jiao, Y., Hu, Z., Zheng, Y., Zheng, L., Mao, J., Liu, H., Du, X.-W., Jaroniec, M., & Qiao, S.-Z.
Affiliations
  • Tianjin University (CN)
  • Beihang University (CN)
  • The University of Adelaide (AU)
  • Nankai University (CN)
  • Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
  • Kent State University (US)
Corresponding author
Qiao, Shi-Zhang
ORCID
Venue
Nature Communications
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2017-11-15
Volume
8
Issue
1
Pages
1509-1509
ISSN
2041-1723 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1038/s41467-017-01872-y
PMC
PMC5686154
OpenAlex
W2767729256
Cited by
450
References
6
Citations by year
2026: 15 · 2025: 41 · 2024: 39 · 2023: 40 · 2022: 59 · 2021: 62 · 2020: 66 · 2019: 65 · 2018: 62 · 2017: 1
FWCI
14.21
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Nature Communications (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • Adelaide Research & Scholarship (AR&S) (University of Adelaide) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China (21576202, 51571149, 51722103)
  • Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin City (15JCYBJC18200)
  • National Outstanding Youth Science Fund Project of National Natural Science Foundation of China (51722103)
  • Australian Research Council (DP160104866, DP140104062, DP170104464)
  • National Key Research and Development Program of China (2014CB931703)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion
  • Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › CO2 Reduction Techniques and Catalysts
  • Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Advanced Photocatalysis Techniques
Keywords
cobalt(II) oxide, nanorods, strain engineering, hydrogen evolution reaction, oxygen evolution reaction, alkaline water electrolysis, oxygen vacancies, electronic structure, hydrogen adsorption, surface engineering, earth-abundant electrocatalysts

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