Interfacial Electronic Modulation on Nickel Cobaltite/Black Phosphorus Heterostructures for Boosting Electrocatalytic Oxygen Evolution Reaction

Black phosphorus (BP) is always regarded as a promising oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalyst due to its extremely high carrier mobility and tunable electronic structure. However, the instability under ambient conditions and poor intrinsic activity greatly restricted the further improvement of its OER performance. Herein, by coupling BP with nickel cobaltite with the aid of dry ball milling, the nickel cobaltite/BP heterostructures (NCO/BP) were designed for alkaline OER catalysis. The interfacial P-M and P-O-M (M = Ni or Co) bonds significantly promote interfacial electrons transfer from BP to NCO and balance the adsorption of oxygen-containing intermediates, thus improving electrocatalytic OER performance. The NCO/BP exhibits superior electrocatalytic OER performance with an ultra-low overpotential of 197 mV at the current density of 10 mA·cm-2, a small Tafel slope of 88.05 mV·dec-1, and long-term durability in alkaline media.