Three-dimensional coral-like cobalt selenide as an advanced electrocatalyst for highly efficient oxygen evolution reaction

• Published in: Electrochimica acta 2016-03, Vol.194, p.59-66
• Main Authors: Liao, Mei, Zeng, Guangfeng, Luo, Tingting, Jin, Zhaoyu, Wang, Yujue, Kou, Xingming, Xiao, Dan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cobalt; coral-like CoSe; Current density; Durability; electrocatalyst; Electrocatalysts; Evolution; Nanoparticles; Oxygen; Oxygen evolution reaction (OER); RuO2; solvothermal reaction method; Three dimensional
• ISSN: 0013-4686; 1873-3859
• DOI: 10.1016/j.electacta.2016.02.046

Oxygen evolution reaction (OER) influences some important renewable energy technologies such as water splitting. Although many OER electrocatalysts have been studied to surmount this difficult problem, the development of a highly active, inexpensive and sustained OER electrocatalyst is still a great challenge. In this study, we report a novel, cost-effective cobalt selenide (coral-like CoSe) electrocatalyst with high current density (∼97.5mAcm−2at 1.606V vs. RHE) and strong durability in alkaline media. The chronoamperometric response of coral-like CoSe electrocatalyst can remain 98% of its initial current density after 10000s at the overpotential of 350mV in 1M KOH. The prepared coral-like CoSe electrode exhibits a low overpotential of 295mV at a current density of 10mAcm−2 and a small Tafel slope of 40mVdec−1, which exceeds previously reported state-of-art RuO2 electrocatalyst and is much better than CoSe nanoparticles (CoSe NPs) and precursor Co(OH)2 electrocatalysts. This work affords us a 3D Co-based electrocatalyst with high performance and strong durability under alkaline conditions, which can be applied to energy conversion and storage processes.