Developing highly competent and cost-effective electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is crucial for clean renewable energy technologies. To this end, the wise assimilation of transition metal compounds with carbon materials is a promising approach to prepare efficient electrocatalysts. Here, we report a facile and cost-effective solvothermal route to synthesize cobalt-pyrazolate framework (Co(pz)) followed by thermal treatment in the air to yield N-doped porous carbon encapsulating uniform cobalt oxides nanoparticles (Co₃O₄/N–C). The resulting composite material is evaluated as electrocatalyst for the OER in basic media with a low onset potential of ~ 1.52 V (vs. RHE), very small Tafel slope of 44 mV dec⁻¹, and overpotential of only 390 mV to achieve a stable current density of 10 mA cm⁻² in 1.0 M KOH. The achieved superior oxygen evolution activity in comparison with the state-of-the-art noble metal catalysts originates from in situ incorporation of metal oxides into highly porous carbon matrix, resulting in strong synergistic effects between Co₃O₄ and N-doped carbon with ordered mesoporous structure leading to the enhanced charge transport and conductivity, and high structural stability. The excellent electrocatalytic performance and superior stability make the Co₃O₄/N–C a promising non-precious electrode material for the OER.

中文翻译：

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吡唑啉钴衍生的N掺杂多孔碳和嵌入式氧化钴，可增强氧气释放反应

开发用于氧气析出反应（OER）的功能强大且具有成本效益的电催化剂对于清洁可再生能源技术至关重要。为此，过渡金属化合物与碳材料的明智同化是制备有效电催化剂的有前途的方法。在这里，我们报告了一种简便且经济高效的溶剂热途径，以合成吡唑酸钴骨架（Co（pz）），然后在空气中进行热处理，以产生N掺杂的多孔碳，包封均匀的氧化钴纳米颗粒（Co ₃ O ₄ / N -C）。所得复合材料被评估为基本介质中OER的电催化剂，其起始电势低至〜1.52 V（vs. RHE），Tafel斜率非常小，为44 mV dec ^-1，并且只有390 mV的超电势才能在1.0 M KOH中实现10 mA cm ^-2的稳定电流密度。与最先进的贵金属催化剂相比，所获得的优异的析氧活性源自将金属氧化物原位掺入高度多孔的碳基体中，从而导致Co ₃ O ₄与N掺杂的碳之间产生强大的协同作用。有序的介孔结构导致增强的电荷传输和导电性，以及较高的结构稳定性。出色的电催化性能和出色的稳定性使Co ₃ O ₄ / N–C成为OER的有前途的非贵金属电极材料。