Regulating the pore structure and oxygen vacancies of cobaltosic oxide hollow dodecahedra for an enhanced oxygen evolution reaction

Abstract

Engineering an electrocatalytic anode material to boost reaction kinetics is highly desirable for the anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER), which is the major obstacle for high efficiency water electrolysis. Here, we present a novel kind of Zn-doped Co3O4 hollow dodecahedral electrocatalyst. Abundant oxygen vacancy defects are introduced due to the incorporation of Zn2+, which is beneficial for OH− adsorption and the charge transfer reaction during the OER process. Moreover, the increase in surface area caused by the advanced structure of the hollow porous dodecahedra facilitates mass transport by increasing the surface area. The novel strategy proposed in this study provides an efficient way to design high-performance electrocatalysts for water electrolysis.