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Published on: January 31, 2025
Cathodic electrochemical activation of Co3O4 nanoarrays: a smart strategy to significantly boost the hydrogen
1College of Chemistry, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China. sunxp@scu.edu.cn.
Abstract:
Co(hydro)oxides show unsatisfactory catalytic activity for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in alkaline media, and it is thus highly desirable but still remains a challenge to design and develop Co(hydro)oxide derived materials as superb hydrogen-evolving catalysts using a facile, rapid and less energy-intensive method. Here, we propose a cathodic electrochemical activation strategy toward greatly boosted HER activity of a Co3O4 nanoarray via room-temperature cathodic polarization in sodium hypophosphite solution. After activation, the overpotential significantly decreases from 260 to 73 mV to drive a geometrical catalytic current density of 10 mA cm-2 in 1.0 M KOH. Notably, this activated electrode also shows strong long-term electrochemical durability with the retention of its catalytic activity at 100 mA cm-2 for at least 40 h.
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