Polymorphic CoSe2 with mixed orthorhombic and cubic phases for highly efficient hydrogen evolution reaction
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Updated: Apr 18, 2026

Developing Photosensitizer-Cobaloxime Hybrids for Solar-Driven H2 Production in Aqueous Aerobic Conditions
Published on: October 5, 2019
Hongxiu Zhang1, Bin Yang, Xiaolin Wu
1Key Laboratory of Biomass Chemical Engineering of Ministry of Education, College of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Zhejiang University , Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province 310027, China.
Abstract:
We report polymorphic CoSe2 (p-CoSe2) with mixed orthorhombic and cubic phases as a highly active electrocatalyst toward hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The p-CoSe2 is obtained by calcining CoSex via electrodeposition at 300 °C. The results of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) demonstrated the crystal structure of p-CoSe2. The p-CoSe2 exhibits excellent electrocatalytic activity for HER with a low onset overpotential of -70 mV and a small Tafel slope of ∼30 mV/decade, which are basically state-of-the-art performance of earth-abundant electrocatalysts. The HER performance of p-CoSe2 was much higher than that of amorphous CoSex, cubic CoSe2, and CoSe. This study offers a competitive electrocatalyst for HER and opens up a new strategy to the synthesis of catalysts for energy conversion.
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