Covalent organic polymer assisted synthesis of bimetallic electrocatalysts with multicomponent active dopants for efficient oxygen evolution reaction

The development of highly active and stable electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction is of great importance for renewable-energy. Herein, a novel hybrid nanomaterial with multicomponent active dopants was conveniently fabricated by pyrolytic conversion from a bimetallic ion-decorated heteroatom-rich (P, S and N) covalent organic polymer (COP) composite. The unique nanostructure with innumerable Co9-xNixS8 and CoNiP nanoparticles anchored on P/S/N multi-doped carbon/carbon nanotubes, through in situ electrochemical reconstruction effectively provides substantial active sites and promotes charge transfer, and hence affords outstanding activity with a low overpotential of 270 mV at 10 mAcm(-2) and excellent stability for oxygen evolution reaction based on two runs of 10-h durability test in alkaline solution, which much outperformed the fewer-component counterparts. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.