Controllable disorder engineering in Mn-doped Co3O4/NF electrocatalyst for efficient overall water-splitting

The design of high-effective bifunctional non-noble electrocatalysts is a feasible strategy for water electrolysis. Non-noble metal oxide Co3O4/NF is a promising electrocatalyst. However, the wide application has been limited by its poor intrinsic activity for HER. In this work, controllable disorder engineering in Co3O4 was realized by a simple Mn-doping process. As higher disorder degree, a more and more Mn2+ and Co2+-rich surfaces of Co3O4/NF can be obtained, resulting in a faster charge transfer rate and more accessible active sites because of regulating the electronic structure and forming more defects. The optimized Co3O4/NF (Mn0.8Co2.2O4/NF) shows the enhanced HER and OER activity with an overpotential as low as 154 mV and 231 mV at 10 mA·cm−2, and only needs a cell voltage of 1.56 V for overall water-splitting. In a word, high-effective bifunctional non-noble electrocatalysts have been developed by controllable disorder engineering in Mn-doped Co3O4/NF.