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

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 BOx 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 CoNNWAs/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.