Cobalt/Iron(Oxides) Heterostructures for Efficient Oxygen Evolution and Benzyl Alcohol Oxidation Reactions

Design of advanced electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and the alternative reaction is of prime importance to splitting water for hydrogen generation. Herein, cobalt/iron­(oxides) heterostructures with interface engineering for regulating surface structure properties toward enhanced OER and benzyl alcohol oxidation (BAO) are demonstrated. Interface engineering triggers generation of local crystallinity and defective oxygen, enabling the material to export 50 mA cm^–2 for OER at an overpotential of 329 mV and continuous 20 h of operation without apparent decay. Further, BAO is also boosted on the heterostructures, further propelling water splitting to export 10 mA cm^–2 at a voltage of only 1.42 V. Theoretical calculation reveals that the defective sites dominated by interfaces facilitate adsorption/dissociation of intermediates during electrocatalysis. The findings in this work place Fe/Co­(oxides) heterostructures as an excellent bifunctional OER/BAO catalyst and also provide a promising interface-regulated electrocatalysis strategy for development of other advanced heterostructures toward various applications