N-Doping Coupled with Co-Vacancies Activating Sulfur Atoms and Narrowing Bandgap for CoS Toward Synergistically Accelerating Hydrogen Evolution

Ping Zeng, Yang Meng, Zhan Liu, Guo Qi Sun, Xiao Yun Li, Xiao Yu Yang, Cui Fang Ye, Yu Li, Jin Ping Liu, Li Hua Chen, Bao Lian Su, Yi Long Wang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The combination of hetero-elemental doping and vacancy engineering will be developed as one of the most efficient strategies to design excellent electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein, a novel strategy for N-doping coupled with Co-vacancies is demonstrated to precisely activate inert S atoms adjacent to Co-vacancies and significantly improve charge transfer for CoS toward accelerating HER. In this strategy, N-doping favors the presence of Co-vacancies, due to greatly decreasing their formation energy. The as-developed strategy realizes the upshift of S 3p orbitals followed by more overlapping between S 3py and H 1s orbitals, which results in the favorable hydrogen atom adsorption free energy change (ΔGH) to activate inert S atoms as newborn catalytical sites. Besides, this strategy synergistically decreases the bandgap of CoS, thereby achieving satisfactory electrical conductivity and low charge-transfer resistance for the as-obtained electrocatalysts. With an excellent HER activity of −89.0 mV at 10.0 mA cm−2 in alkaline environments, this work provides a new approach to unlocking inert sites and significantly improving charge transfer toward cobalt-based materials for highly efficient HER.

Original languageEnglish
Article number2301279
JournalSmall : nano, micro
Volume19
Issue number33
Early online date22 Apr 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 16 Aug 2023

Keywords

  • activating sulfur atoms electrocatalysis
  • cobalt sulfide
  • hetero-elemental doping
  • vacancy engineering

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