Engineering Morphologies of Cobalt Pyrophosphates Nanostructures toward Greatly Enhanced Electrocatalytic Performance...

Herein, a surfactant- and additive-free strategy is developed for morphology-controllable synthesis of cobalt pyrophosphate (CoPPi) nanostructures by tuning the concentration and ratio of the precursor solutions of Na₄ P₂ O₇ and Co(CH₃ COO)₂ . A series of CoPPi nanostructures including nanowires, nanobelts, nanoleaves, and nanorhombuses are prepared and exhibit very promising electrocatalytic properties toward the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Acting as both reactant and pseudo-surfactant, the existence of excess Na₄ P₂ O₇ is essential to synthesize CoPPi nanostructures for unique morphologies. Among all CoPPi nanostructures, the CoPPi nanowires catalyst renders the best catalytic performance for OER in alkaline media, achieving a low Tafel slope of 54.1 mV dec^-1 , a small overpotential of 359 mV at 10 mA cm^-2 , and superior stability. The electrocatalytic activities of CoPPi nanowires outperform the most reported non-noble metal based catalysts, even better than the benchmark Ir/C (20%) catalyst. The reported synthesis of CoPPi gives guidance for morphology control of transition metal pyrophosphate based nanostructures for a high-performance inexpensive material to replace the noble metal-based OER catalysts.