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Hybrids of Fe3O4/CoSe2 as efficient electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction

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Abstract

Here we demonstrated two different hydrothermal methods for synthesizing Fe3O4/CoSe2 hybrids with different weight ratios of Fe3O4 and CoSe2. The synthesized materials were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. And the electrochemical properties were obtained by linear sweep voltammetry, chronoamperometry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. For the first method, the obtained catalyst with loading 20% Fe3O4 on CoSe2 (C20a) exhibits the highest oxygen reduction reaction activity. While for the second method, the obtained catalyst with loading 30% Fe3O4 on CoSe2 (C30b) exhibits the highest oxygen reduction reaction activity, with an onset potential of 0.775 V, a half-wave potential of 0.600 V, and Tafel slope of 65 mV decade−1 in O2-saturated 0.5 M H2SO4. Which are better than those of C20a (0.753, 0.567 V and 67 mV decade−1), CoSe2 (0.708, 0.560 V and 66 mV decade−1) and Fe3O4 (0.700, 0.556 V and 79 mV decade−1). More importantly, C30b shows much higher stability and better methanol, ethanol and ethylene glycol tolerance than other prepared materials.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China through a project entitled “The synthesis of Pt-M/C nanoparticles and construction of non-enzymatic electrochemical biosensor” (21205030), and by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (51402096), and by Hubei Key Laboratory of Pollutant Analysis & Reuse Technology (PA160104), and from the Natural Science Fund for Creative Research Groups of Hubei Province of China through a project entitled “Controllable Synthesis and Application of Nano-/microsized Functional Materials” (2014CFA015).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hubei Collaborative Innovation Center for Advanced Organic Chemical Materials and Key Laboratory for the Synthesis and Application of Organic Functional Molecules, Ministry of Education and College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hubei University, Wuhan, 430062, People’s Republic of China

    Yanli Huang, Chuanqi Feng, Huimin Wu & Shengfu Wang

  2. College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Hubei Engineering University, Xiaogan, 432000, People’s Republic of China

    Feng Wang

  3. Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials, School of Mechanical, Materials and Mechatronics Engineering, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2522, Australia

    Huakun Liu

  4. Hubei Key Laboratory of Pollutant Analysis & Reuse Technology, Hubei Normal University, Huangshi, People’s Republic of China

    Huimin Wu

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  1. Yanli Huang
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Correspondence to Huimin Wu or Feng Wang.

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Huang, Y., Feng, C., Wu, H. et al. Hybrids of Fe3O4/CoSe2 as efficient electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction. J Mater Sci 53, 1123–1134 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-017-1603-7

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