AUTHOR=Yan Yubing 

TITLE=Facile Synthesis of Carbon Cloth Supported Cobalt Carbonate Hydroxide Hydrate Nanoarrays for Highly Efficient Oxygen Evolution Reaction

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Chemistry

VOLUME=9

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/chemistry/articles/10.3389/fchem.2021.754357

DOI=10.3389/fchem.2021.754357

ISSN=2296-2646

ABSTRACT=<p>Developing efficient and low-cost replacements for noble metals as electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) remain a great challenge. Herein, we report a needle-like cobalt carbonate hydroxide hydrate (Co(CO<sub>3</sub>)<sub>0.5</sub>OH·0.11H<sub>2</sub>O) nanoarrays, which <italic>in situ</italic> grown on the surface of carbon cloth through a facile one-step hydrothermal method. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) characterizations demonstrate that the Co(CO<sub>3</sub>)<sub>0.5</sub>OH nanoarrays with high porosity is composed of numerous one-dimensional (1D) nanoneedles. Owing to unique needle-like array structure and abundant exposed active sites, the Co(CO<sub>3</sub>)<sub>0.5</sub>OH@CC only requires 317 mV of overpotential to reach a current density of 10 mA cm<sup>−2</sup>, which is much lower than those of Co(OH)<sub>2</sub>@CC (378 mV), CoCO<sub>3</sub>@CC (465 mV) and RuO<sub>2</sub>@CC (380 mV). For the stability, there is no significant attenuation of current density after continuous operation 27 h. This work paves a facile way to the design and construction of electrocatalysts for the OER.</p>