Nanoengineered Cobalt Electrocatalyst for Alkaline Oxygen Evolution Reaction

The alkaline oxygen evolution reaction (OER) remains a bottleneck in green hydrogen production owing to its slow reaction kinetics and low catalytic efficiencies of earth abundant electrocatalysts in the alkaline OER reaction. This study investigates the OER performance of hierarchically porous cobalt electrocatalysts synthesized using the dynamic hydrogen bubble templating (DHBT) method. Characterization studies revealed that electrocatalysts synthesized under optimized conditions using the DHBT method consisted of cobalt nanosheets, and hierarchical porosity with macropores distributed in a honeycomb network and mesopores distributed between cobalt nanosheets. Moreover, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy studies revealed the presence of Co(OH)₂ as the predominant surface cobalt species while Raman studies revealed the presence of the cubic Co₃O₄ phase in the synthesized electrocatalysts. The best performing electrocatalyst required only 360 mV of overpotential to initiate a current density of 10 mA cm^-2, exhibited a Tafel slope of 37 mV dec^-1, and stable OER activity over 24 h. The DHBT method offers a facile, low cost and rapid synthesis approach for preparation for highly efficient cobalt electrocatalysts.