Non-carbonization annealing toward regulation of cobalt-based organic-inorganic hybrids as advanced electrocatalysts for water splitting.

High-temperature carbonization typically used in the preparation of advanced electrocatalysts poses significant challenges in preserving abundant functional groups essential for reactant adsorption and component stabilization. To address this, a solvothermal synthesis followed by non-carbonization annealing approach is proposed to fabricate a series of cobalt-based organic-inorganic hybrids derived from cobalt-based glycerate nanospheres (GNs). Notably, annealing in phosphorous and inert atmospheres preserves the solid nanospherical structure, whereas treatment in sulfur-rich environments results in the formation of hollowed nanospheres.

Controllable Solid-Phase Fabrication of an FeO/FeC/Fe-N-C Electrocatalyst toward Optimizing the Oxygen Reduction Reaction in Zinc-Air Batteries.

Preparing advanced electrocatalysts via solid-phase reactions encounters the challenge of low controllability for multiconstituent hybridization and microstructure modulation. Herein, a hydrothermal-mimicking solid-phase system is established to fabricate novel FeO/FeC/Fe-N-C composites consisting of FeO/FeC nanoparticles and Fe,N-doped carbon species with varying morphologies. The evolution mechanism featuring a competitive growth of different carbon sources in a closed hypoxic space is elucidated for a series of FeO/FeC/Fe-N-C composites.