Strongly Coupled CoO Nanoclusters/CoFe LDHs Hybrid as a Synergistic Catalyst for Electrochemical Water Oxidation

Exploiting high-performance, robust, and cost-effective electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is crucial for electrochemical energy storage and conversion technologies. Engineering the interfacial structure of hybrid catalysts often induces synergistically enhanced electrocatalytic performance. Herein, a new strongly coupled heterogeneous catalyst with proper interfacial structures, i.e., CoO nanoclusters decorated on CoFe layered double hydroxides (LDHs) nanosheets, is prepared via a simple one-step pulsed laser ablation in liquid method. Thorough spectroscopic characterizations reveal that strong chemical couplings at the hybrid interface trigger charge transfer from Co^II in the oxide to Fe^III in the LDHs through the interfacial FeOCo bond, leading to considerable amounts of high oxidation state Co^III sites present in the hybrid. Interestingly, the CoO/CoFe LDHs exhibit pronounced synergistic effects in electrocatalytic water oxidation, with substantially enhanced intrinsic catalytic activity and stability relative to both components. The hybrid catalyst achieves remarkably low OER overpotential and Tafel slope in alkaline medium, outperforming that of Ru/C and manifesting itself among the most active Co-based OER catalysts.