Salt-Templated Nanoarchitectonics of CoSe2-NC Nanosheets as an Efficient Bifunctional Oxygen Electrocatalyst for Water Splitting

Recently, the extensive research of efficient bifunctional electrocatalysts (oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER)) on water splitting has drawn increasing attention. Herein, a salt-template strategy is prepared to synthesize nitrogen-doped carbon nanosheets encapsulated with dispersed CoSe2 nanoparticles (CoSe2-NC NSs), while the thickness of CoSe2-NC NSs is only about 3.6 nm. Profiting from the ultrathin morphology, large surface area, and promising electrical conductivity, the CoSe2-NC NSs exhibited excellent electrocatalytic of 10 mA·cm-2 current density at small overpotentials of 247 mV for OER and 75 mV for HER. Not only does the nitrogen-doped carbon matrix effectively avoid self-aggregation of CoSe2 nanoparticles, but it also prevents the corrosion of CoSe2 from electrolytes and shows favorable durability after long-term stability tests. Furthermore, an overall water-splitting system delivers a current density of 10 mA·cm-2 at a voltage of 1.54 V with resultants being both the cathode and anode catalyst in alkaline solutions. This work provides a new way to synthesize efficient and nonprecious bifunctional electrocatalysts for water splitting.