Dual Integrating Oxygen and Sulphur on Surface of CoTe Nanorods Triggers Enhanced Oxygen Evolution Reaction

The bottleneck of large-scale implementation of electrocatalytic water-splitting technology lies in lacking inexpensive, efficient, and durable catalysts to accelerate the sluggish oxygen evolution reaction kinetics. Owing to more metallic features, transition metal telluride (TMT) with good electronic conductivity holds promising potential as an ideal type of electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER), whereas most TMTs reported up to now still show unsatisfactory OER performance that is far below corresponding sulfide and selenide counterparts. Here, the activation and stabilization of cobalt telluride (CoTe) nanoarrays toward OER through dual integration of sulfur (S) doping and surface oxidization is reported. The as-synthesized CoO@S-CoTe catalyst exhibits a low overpotential of only 246 mV at 10 mA cm(-2) and a long-term stability of more than 36 h, outperforming commercial RuO2 and other reported telluride-based OER catalysts. The combined experimental and theoretical results reveal that the enhanced OER performance stems from increased active sites exposure, improved charge transfer ability, and optimized electronic state. This work will provide a valuable guidance to release the catalytic potential of telluride-based OER catalysts via interface modulating engineering.

Automated summary

The bottleneck of large-scale implementation of electrocatalytic water-splitting technology is the lack of inexpensive, efficient, and durable catalysts for accelerating the sluggish oxygen evolution reaction kinetics. This study reports the activation and stabilization of cobalt telluride (CoTe) nanoarrays for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) through dual integration of sulfur (S) doping and surface oxidization. The synthesized CoO@S-CoTe catalyst exhibits superior OER performance compared to commercial RuO2 and other reported telluride-based OER catalysts, with a low overpotential and long-term stability.