Electrochemically Reconstructed Vanadic Oxide-Doped Cobalt Pyrophosphate as an Electrocatalyst for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction.

More and more attention has been paid to the development of the efficient electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Herein, a porous vanadic oxide-doped cobalt pyrophosphate electrocatalyst, namely VO-CoPO, was exploited by using the electrochemical reconstruction method in the alkaline electrolyte and selecting a cobalt vanadium phosphate Co(HO)(VOPO) as a precursor. The reconstructed vanadic oxide-doped cobalt pyrophosphate catalyst VO-CoPO exhibited efficient electrocatalytic activity for the OER in 1.0 M KOH, requiring a low overpotential of 199 mV at 10 mA cm, compared to the reported pyrophosphate electrocatalysts. The porous morphology and doping of vanadic oxide after electrochemical reconstruction were beneficial to enhance the electrocatalytic performance for the OER, through improving the surface area to bring in more accessibly active sites and regulating the electronic structures. The results provided a promising strategy to prepare the pyrophosphate electrocatalysts and improve the performance of the OER catalyst.