Polymorphic cobalt diselenide as extremely stable electrocatalyst in acidic media via a phase-mixing strategy

Xiao-Long Zhang, Shao-Jin Hu, Ya-Rong Zheng, Rui Wu, Fei-Yue Gao, Peng-Peng Yang, Zhuang-Zhuang Niu, Chao Gu, Xingxing Yu, Xu-Sheng Zheng, Cheng Ma, Xiao Zheng, Jun-Fa Zhu, Min-Rui Gao () and Shu-Hong Yu ()
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Xiao-Long Zhang: University of Science and Technology of China
Shao-Jin Hu: University of Science and Technology of China
Ya-Rong Zheng: University of Science and Technology of China
Rui Wu: University of Science and Technology of China
Fei-Yue Gao: University of Science and Technology of China
Peng-Peng Yang: University of Science and Technology of China
Zhuang-Zhuang Niu: University of Science and Technology of China
Chao Gu: University of Science and Technology of China
Xingxing Yu: University of Science and Technology of China
Xu-Sheng Zheng: University of Science and Technology of China
Cheng Ma: University of Science and Technology of China
Xiao Zheng: University of Science and Technology of China
Jun-Fa Zhu: University of Science and Technology of China
Min-Rui Gao: University of Science and Technology of China
Shu-Hong Yu: University of Science and Technology of China

Nature Communications, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Many platinum group metal-free inorganic catalysts have demonstrated high intrinsic activity for diverse important electrode reactions, but their practical use often suffers from undesirable structural degradation and hence poor stability, especially in acidic media. We report here an alkali-heating synthesis to achieve phase-mixed cobalt diselenide material with nearly homogeneous distribution of cubic and orthorhombic phases. Using water electroreduction as a model reaction, we observe that the phase-mixed cobalt diselenide reaches the current density of 10 milliamperes per square centimeter at overpotential of mere 124 millivolts in acidic electrolyte. The catalyst shows no sign of deactivation after more than 400 h of continuous operation and the polarization curve is well retained after 50,000 potential cycles. Experimental and computational investigations uncover a boosted covalency between Co and Se atoms resulting from the phase mixture, which substantially enhances the lattice robustness and thereby the material stability. The findings provide promising design strategy for long-lived catalysts in acid through crystal phase engineering.

Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-12992-y

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