Nonoxides have been widely employed as highly efficient catalysts for water splitting. However, these nonoxides suffer from obvious surface transformation and poor structural stability, which must be urgently remedied. Herein, the interfacial engineering of Co₄N via mesoporous nitrogen-doped carbon (NC) was first carried out, in which NC can significantly suppress the oxidization of Co₄N in alkaline media, ensuring the efficient interfacial charge transport between Co₄N and NC. As a result, extremely low overpotentials @10 mA cm^–2 of 62 mV (hydrogen evolution reaction, HER) and 257 mV (oxygen evolution reaction, OER) and small Tafel slopes of 37 mV (HER) and 58 mV dec^–1 (OER) were achieved in alkaline media. Theoretical calculations suggest that their synergetic coupling effects can significantly facilitate the charge-transfer process and further greatly reduce the energy barrier for water splitting. This work underscores the importance of the surface engineering of nonoxides and efficient approaches for the design of stable catalysts for electrocatalysis.

中文翻译：

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氮化钴和中孔氮掺杂碳的界面工程：提高电荷转移效率，提高整体水分解活性

非氧化物已被广泛用作水分解的高效催化剂。但是，这些非氧化物具有明显的表面转变和较差的结构稳定性，必须立即对其进行补救。本文首先通过介孔氮掺杂碳（NC）进行了Co ₄ N的界面工程，其中NC可以显着抑制碱性介质中Co ₄ N的氧化，从而确保了Co ₄ N和Co之间的有效界面电荷传输。NC。结果，在10 mA cm ^–2时极低的过电势为62 mV（氢释放反应，HER）和257 mV（氧释放反应，OER），以及37 mV（HER）和58 mV dec ^-1的小Tafel斜率（OER）在碱性介质中获得。理论计算表明，它们的协同耦合作用可以显着促进电荷转移过程，并进一步大大降低了水分解的能垒。这项工作强调了非氧化物表面工程的重要性以及有效设计电催化稳定催化剂的方法。