Catalysts for oxygen reduction and evolution reactions are at the heart of
key renewable energy technologies including fuel cells and water splitting.
Despite tremendous efforts, developing oxygen electrode catalysts with high
activity at low costs remains a grand challenge. Here, we report a hybrid
material of Co3O4 nanocrystals grown on reduced graphene oxide (GO) as a
high-performance bi-functional catalyst for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and
oxygen evolution reaction (OER). While Co3O4 or graphene oxide alone has little
catalytic activity, their hybrid exhibits an unexpected, surprisingly high ORR
activity that is further enhanced by nitrogen-doping of graphene. The
Co3O4/N-doped graphene hybrid exhibits similar catalytic activity but superior
stability to Pt in alkaline solutions. The same hybrid is also highly active
for OER, making it a high performance non-precious metal based bi-catalyst for
both ORR and OER. The unusual catalytic activity arises from synergetic
chemical coupling effects between Co3O4 and graphene.Comment: published in Nature Material