Regulating electronic structure of hollow LaxCoyO4@NC by La incorporation for electrochemical oxygen evolution reaction

Developing efficient and low-cost electrocatalysts to substitute noble metals is crucial for oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Herein, we successfully synthesized hollow porous La-doped Co3O4 dodecahedral nanoparticles (LaxCoyO4@NC) through using ZIF-67 as precursor. Wherein, La could regulate electronic structure of Co3O4 and thus promotes the OER performance efficiently. La doped Co3O4 displays enhanced OER activity than pure Co3O4, as confirmed by experience results and density functional theory (DFT) calculation. Due to La doping, the ratio of Co2+ and Co3+ would increase obviously and generate new electronic states near the Fermi level. The La0.17Co2.83O4@NC exhibites excellent OER performance and high durability, which only requires an overpotential of 363 mV at the current density of 10 mA·cm−2 in alkaline medium and markedly outperforms Co3O4@NC (414 mV). These findings might provide a new strategy for controllable synthesis of transition metal nanocatalysts for high-performance OER electrocatalysis.