Atomic Layer Deposition of Cobalt Phosphide for Efficient Water Splitting

Transition‐metal phosphides (TMP) prepared by atomic layer deposition (ALD) are reported for the first time. Ultrathin Co‐P films were deposited by using PH₃ plasma as the phosphorus source and an extra H₂ plasma step to remove excess P in the growing films. The optimized ALD process proceeded by self‐limited layer‐by‐layer growth, and the deposited Co‐P films were highly pure and smooth. The Co‐P films deposited via ALD exhibited better electrochemical and photoelectrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activities than similar Co‐P films prepared by the traditional post‐phosphorization method. Moreover, the deposition of ultrathin Co‐P films on periodic trenches was demonstrated, which highlights the broad and promising potential application of this ALD process for a conformal coating of TMP films on complex three‐dimensional (3D) architectures.     

Tailoring a Zinc Oxide Nanorod Surface by Adding an Earth-Abundant Cocatalyst for Induced Sunlight Water Oxidation

Herein, a detailed investigation of the surface modification of a zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorod electrode with FeOOH nanoparticles dispersed in glycine was conducted to improve the water oxidation reaction assisted by sunlight. The results were systematically analysed in terms of the general parameters (light absorption, charge separation, and surface for catalysis) that govern the photocurrent density response of metal oxide as photoanode in a photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell. ZnO electrodes surface were modified with different concentration of FeOOH nanoparticles using the spin-coating deposition method, and it was found that 6-layer deposition of glycine-FeOOH nanoparticles is the optimum condition. The glycine plays an important role decreasing the agglomeration of FeOOH nanoparticles over the ZnO electrode surface and increasing the overall performance. Comparing bare ZnO electrodes with the ones modified with glycine-FeOOH nanoparticles an enhanced photocurrent density can be observed from 0.27 to 0.57 mA/cm² at 1.23 V_RHE under sunlight irradiation. The impedance spectroscopy data aid us to conclude that the higher photocurrent density is an effect associated with more efficient surface for chemical reaction instead of electronic improvement. Nevertheless, the charge separation efficiency remains low for this system. The present discovery shows that the combination of glycine-FeOOH nanoparticle is suitable and environmentally-friend cocatalyst to enhance the ZnO nanorod electrode activity for the oxygen evolution reaction assisted by sunlight irradiation.     

Photo-driven water splitting photoelectrochemical cells by tandem organic dye sensitized solar cells with I−/I3− as redox mediator

Dye-sensitized photoelectrochemical tandem cells have shown the promise for light driven hydrogen production from water owing to the low cost,wide absorption spectra in the visible region and ease to process of their constitutive photoelectrode materials.However,most photo-driven water splitting photoelectrochemical cells driven by organic dye sensitized solar cells exhibit unsatisfactory hydrogen evolution rate,primarily attributed to their poor light capturing ability and low photocurrent performance.Here we present the construction of a tandem system consisting of an organic blue-colored S5 sensitizer-based dyesensitized photoelectrochemical cell(DSPEC) wired in series with three spectral-complemental dyes BTA-2,APP-3 and APP-1 sensitizers-based dye-sensitized solar cell(DSC),respectively.The two spectral-complemental chromophores were used in DSC and DSPEC to ensure that the full solar spectrum could be absorbed as much as possible.The results showed that the photocurrent of tandem device was closely related to the open-circuit voltage(Voc) of sensitized DSC,in which the tandem configuration consisting of S5 based DSPEC and BTA-2 based DSC gave the best photocurrent.On this basis,tandem device with the only light energy and no external applied electrical bias was further constructed of BTA-2 based 2-junction DSC and S5 based DSPEC and obtained a photocurrent of 500 μA cm-2 for hydrogen generation.Furthermore,I-/I3-was used as a redox couple between dye regeneration and O2 production on the surface of Pt-IrO2/WO3.The strategy opens up the application of pure organic dyes in DSC/DSPEC tandem device.     

Controlled Synthesis of Cr‐Co0.85Se Nanoarrays for Water Splitting at an Ultralow Cell Voltage of 1.43 V

Water splitting has attracted more and more attention as a promising strategy for the production of clean hydrogen fuel. In this work, a new synthesis strategy was proposed, and Co_0.85Se was synthesized on nickel foam as the main matrix. The doping of appropriate Cr amount into the target of Co_0.85Se and the Cr‐Co_0.85Se resulted in an excellent electrochemical performance. The doping of Cr introduces Cr³⁺ ions which substitute Co²⁺ and Co³⁺ ions in Co_0.85Se, so that the lattice parameters of the main matrix were changed. It is worth noting that the Cr0.15‐Co_0.85Se/NF material exhibits an excellent performance in the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) test. When the current density reaches 50 mA cm^?2 for OER, the overpotential is only 240 mV. For the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) tests, the overpotential is only 117 mV to drive 10 mA cm^?2 of current density. Moreover, when the Cr0.15‐Co_0.85Se/NF material is used as a two‐electrode device for whole water splitting, the required cell voltage is only 1.43 V to reach a current density of 10 mA cm^?2, which is among the lowest values of the published catalysts up to now. In addition, the Cr0.15‐Co_0.85Se/NF catalyst also exhibits excellent stability during a long period of water splitting. The experimental result demonstrates that the change of the lattice structure has an obvious influence on the electrocatalytic activity of the material. When an external electric field is applied, it facilitates the rapid electron transfer rate and enhances the electrocatalytic performance and stability of the material.     

Molybdenum Carbide‐Embedded Multichannel Hollow Carbon Nanofibers as Bifunctional Catalysts for Water Splitting

With the environmental pollution and non‐renewable fossil fuels, it is imperative to develop eco‐friendly, renewable, and highly efficient electrocatalysts for sustainable energy. Herein, a simple electrospinning process used to synthesis Mo₂C‐embedded multichannel hollow carbon nanofibers (Mo₂C‐MCNFs) and followed by the pyrolysis process. As prepared lotus root‐like nanoarchitecture could offer rich porosity and facilitate the electrolyte infiltration, the Mo₂C‐MCNFs delivered favourable catalytic activity for HER and OER. The resultant catalysts exhibit low overpotentials of 114 mV and 320 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm^?2 for HER and OER, respectively. Furthermore, using the Mo₂C‐MCNFs catalysts as a bifunctional electrode toward overall water splitting, which only needs a small cell voltage of 1.68 V to afford a current density of 10 mA cm^?2 in the home‐made alkaline electrolyzer. This interesting work presents a simple and effective strategy to further fabricating tunable nanostructures for energy‐related applications.     

Fe/Co‐based Bimetallic MOF‐derived Co3Fe7@NCNTFs Bifunctional Electrocatalyst for High‐Efficiency Overall Water Splitting

Electrocatalytic water splitting to produce hydrogen and oxygen is regarded as one of the most promising methods to generate clean and sustainable energy for replacing fossil fuels. However, the design and development of an efficient bifunctional catalyst for simultaneous generation of hydrogen and oxygen remains extremely challenging yet is critical for the practical implementation of water electrolysis. Here, we report a facile method to fabricate novel N‐doped carbon nanotube frameworks (NCNTFs) by the pyrolysis of a bimetallic metal organic framework (MIL‐88‐Fe/Co). The resultant electrocatalyst, Co₃Fe₇@NCNTFs, exhibits excellent oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity, achieving 10 mA/cm² at a low overpotential of just 264 mV in 1 M KOH solution, and 197 mV for the hydrogen evolution reaction. The high electrocatalytic activity arises from the synergistic effect between the chemistry of the Co₃Fe₇ and the NCNTs coupled to the novel framework structure. The remarkable electrocatalytic performance of our bifunctional electrocatalyst provides a promising pathway to high‐performance overall water splitting and electrochemical energy devices.     

On(e)-reducible 3-manifolds Which Admit Complete Surface Systems

In the present paper, we consider a class of compact orientable 3-manifolds with one boundary component, and suppose that the manifolds are ?-reducible and admit complete surface systems. One of our main results says that for a compact orientable, irreducible and ?-reducible 3-manifold M with one boundary component F of genus n > 0 which admits a complete surface system S′, if D is a collection of pairwise disjoint compression disks for ?M , then there exists a complete surface system S for M , which is equivalent to S′, such that D is disjoint from S . We also obtain some properties of such 3-manifolds which can be embedded in S3.     

Strong anisotropy barriers of two theoretically modeled cyano-bridged magnets [(PY5Me2)4M4Re(CN)7] (M = V, Ni): DFT predictions

On the basis of the experimentally synthesized [(PY5Me₂)₄Mn₄Re(CN)₇]⁵⁺, the theoretically modeled clusters of [(PY5Me₂)₄V₄Re(CN)₇]⁵⁺ and [(PY5Me₂)₄Ni₄Re(CN)₇]⁵⁺ both have strong magnetic anisotropy energy barriers.