Alkaline oxygen evolution: exploring synergy between fcc and hcp cobalt nanoparticles entrapped in N-doped graphene

Herein, we report a Mott-Schottky catalyst by entrapping cobalt nanoparticles inside the N-doped graphene shell (Co@NC). The Co@NC delivered excellent oxygen evolution activity with an overpotential of merely 248 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm^–2 with promising long-term stability. The importance of Co encapsulated in NC has further been demonstrated by synthesizing Co nanoparticles without NC shell. The synergy between the hexagonal close-packed (hcp) and face-centered cubic (fcc) Co plays a major role to improve the OER activity, whereas the NC shell optimizes the electronic structure, improves the electron conductivity, and offers a large number of active sites in Co@NC. The density functional theory calculations have revealed that the hcp Co has a dominant role in the surface reaction of electrocatalytic oxygen evolution, whereas the fcc phase induces the built-in electric field at the interfaces with N-doped graphene to accelerate the H⁺ ion transport.     

Comparative Study of LiInSe2 Single Crystals for Thermal-Neutron Detection

Crystallography Reports - Two LiInSe2 single crystals, grown under different conditions, have been studied. Characteristics of these crystals for neutron detection have been compared using...     

Study of the Photocatalytic Antimicrobial Activity of Nanocomposites Based on TiO2–Al2O3 under Action of LED Radiation (405 nm) on Staphylococci

Optics and Spectroscopy - We study the photocatalytic activity of nanocomposites based on θ-phase alumina (Al2O3) with different TiO2 concentrations for heterogeneous photocatalysis and...     

Electron Backscattered Diffraction for the Study of Matrices for Immobilization of Actinides Composed of the Murataite-Type Phases

Crystallography Reports - Electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) has been used to analyze structures of natural minerals and artificial compounds for almost three decades. In recent years, it is...     

Boundary Conditions in the Source of an Electron Beam on the Surface of the Anode Plasma with a Supersonic Ion Flow

Russian Physics Journal - A solution for the one-dimensional Poisson problem for a layer on the surface of a plasma ion emitter is obtained. The case of plasma with a directed ion velocity greater...     

Optimal design of gears contact interface modification for an objective as minimum impact resistance of initial meshing-in time domain

Meccanica - In gear pair actual alternating meshing process, the comprehensive errors of the transmission system and the thermal elastic deformation of the teeth body cause the gears in the meshing...     

INFLUENCE OF THE INITIAL ROUGHNESS OF INTERFACES ON THE INSTABILITY DEVELOPMENT AFTER SHOCK-WAVE PASSAGE

Journal of Applied Mechanics and Technical Physics - Turbulent mixing at interfaces of three-layer gas systems after shock-wave passage has been studied. The influence of the initial roughness of...     

Operator Interpolation and Systems of Linear Equations and Inequalities in Euclidean Spaces

Ukrainian Mathematical Journal - We establish new criteria of compatibility for a linear system of equations (equivalent to the Kronecker–Capelli theorem) or inequalities (equivalent to the...     

Effect of External Factors on the Ferromagnetic Resonance Line Width in Exchange-Biased Structures

Physics of the Solid State - The external factors which influence the ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) line width in bilayer (ferromagnet/antiferromagnet) exchange-biased systems are studied. The...     

Fractional derivative method for describing solitons on the surface of deep water

Theoretical and Mathematical Physics - The fractional derivative method is used to take wave dispersion into account in the wave equation when describing the propagation of gravitational soliton...