Co2(OH)3Cl and MOF mediated synthesis of porous Co3O4/NC nanosheets for efficient OER catalysis

Functional nanosheets have attracted great attention due to their potential applications in catalysis chemistry and material science. Herein, Co 3 O 4 nanoparticles interconnecting with nitrogen-doped carbon architectures (denoted as Co 3 O 4 /NC) was developed on nickel foam surface by a two-step solvothermal process and followed by calcination. A metal organic framework (MOF) of laminar CoMOF-NH 2 was synthesized firstly by in-situ transformation of Co 2 (OH) 3 Cl array. Then, porous Co 3 O 4 /NC nanosheets were obtained by controlled heat treatment of CoMOF-NH 2 . The Co 3 O 4 /NC supported by nickel foam can be directly used as self-supported electrodes for electrocatalysis without any binders. As-synthesized Co 3 O 4 /NC acts as effective catalysis for oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Interestingly, the optimized electrochemical efficiency for OER was achieved by Co 3 O 4 /NC nanosheet with overpotentials of 235 mV and 264 mV offering current densities of 10 mA/cm 2 and 100 mA/cm 2 , respectively. It also has a relatively low Tafel slope, which indicates the fast electron transfer kinetics of the catalyst. So Co 3 O 4 /NC nanosheet has great potential in replacing precious metal electrocatalysts in OER application.