Laser-Ablation-Produced Cobalt Nickel Phosphate with High-Valence Nickel Ions as an Active Catalyst for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction

Cost-effective, highly efficient and stable non-noble metal-based catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are very crucial for energy storage and conversion. Here, an amorphous cobalt nickel phosphate (CoNiPO4), containing a considerable amount of high-valence Ni3+ species as an efficient electrocatalyst for OER in alkaline solution, is reported. The catalyst was converted from Co-doped Ni2P through pulsed laser ablation in liquid (PLAL) and exhibits a large specific surface area of 162.5 m(2) g(-1) and a low overpotential of 238 mV at 10 mA cm(-2) with a Tafel slope of 46 mV dec(-1), which is much lower than those of commercial RuO2 and IrO2. This work demonstrates that PLAL is a powerful technology for generating amorphous CoNiPO4 with high-valence Ni3+, thus paving a new way towards highly effective OER catalysts.