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Modulation of d-orbital to realize enriched electronic cobalt sites in cobalt sulfide for enhanced hydrogen evolution in electrocatalytic water/seawater splitting

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Abstract

Herein, a novel single-atomic Pt doping and interface-rich CoS/Co(OH)2 (Pt-CoS/Co(OH)2/C) electrocatalyst has been successfully prepared. Benefiting from precise regulation of d-orbital electronic structure modulation on Co site, Pt-CoS/Co(OH)2/C exhibited remarkable HER activity and high stability for hydrogen evolution in splitting both water (73 mV@10 mA·cm−2) and seawater (87 mV@10 mA·cm−2). Notably, atomic Pt doping was introduced into CoS/Co(OH)2, which could produce local unbalanced Coulombic force and significantly increased the number of S vacancies, and then expose abundant Co sites. Meantime, Co(OH)2 in Pt-CoS/Co(OH)2/C could act as the adsorption sites for H2O in hydrogen evolution reaction process. Density functional theory results also proved that atomic Pt doping, S vacancies and Co(OH)2 coupling could result in the formation of enriched electronic Co sites and optimize \({\text d}_{{z}^{2}}\) orbital electronic structure, and then realize the depth upward shift of d-band center and enhance the adsorption of H* on Co sites.

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摘要

本文成功制备了一种单原子Pt掺杂、界面丰富的CoS/Co(OH)2 (Pt-CoS/Co(OH)2/C)电催化剂。得益于Co位点d轨道电子结构的精确调控，Pt-CoS/Co(OH)2/C在裂解水(73 mV@10 mA·cm−2)和海水(87 mV@10 mA·cm−2)时表现出显著的HER活性和较高的析氢稳定性。值得注意的是，在CoS/Co(OH)2中引入原子Pt掺杂产生了局部不平衡库仑力，显著增加了S空位的数量，从而暴露出丰富的Co位。同时，Pt-CoS/Co(OH)2/C中的Co(OH)2可作为析氢反应(HER)过程中H2O的吸附位点。密度泛函理论(DFT)结果也证明，原子Pt掺杂、S空位和Co(OH)2耦合可导致富集电子的Co活性位的形成，优化轨道电子结构，进而实现d带中心深度上移，增强H*在Co位上的吸附。

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation (No. ZR2021QB056) and Taishan Scholars Foundation of Shandong province (No. tsqn201909058). The authors would like to thank Shiyanjia Lab (https://www.shiyanjia.com) for the XRD, SEM, XPS, etc., analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Marine Chemistry Theory and Technology (Ministry of Education), College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, 266100, China

    Jian-Peng Sun, Xiang-Chao Meng & Zi-Zhen Li

  2. Shanxi Institute of Energy, Taiyuan, 030600, China

    Yu Zheng

  3. Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, K1N6 N5, Canada

    Zi-Sheng Zhang

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  1. Jian-Peng Sun
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Sun, JP., Zheng, Y., Zhang, ZS. et al. Modulation of d-orbital to realize enriched electronic cobalt sites in cobalt sulfide for enhanced hydrogen evolution in electrocatalytic water/seawater splitting. Rare Met. 43, 511–521 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12598-023-02427-5

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