Hexagonal (Cu,Co)Se2 Nanoflakes as Effective and Durable Bifunctional Electrocatalyst for Overall Alkaline Water Splitting: Understanding Local Structure Around Active Sites Show others and affiliations
2025 (English) In: Small, ISSN 1613-6810, E-ISSN 1613-6829, Vol. 21, no 47, article id e07915Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Electrochemical water splitting is an eco-friendly method for large-scale production of high-purity hydrogen (H2) and oxygen (O2), and hence, pioneering the design of efficient and economic bifunctional electrocatalysts is necessary. Here, hexagonal (Cu,Co)Se2 nanoflakes are fabricated to leverage the unique synergy between copper and cobalt for efficient hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER). As HER and OER catalysts, (Cu,Co)Se2 nanoflakes demonstrate low overpotentials of 104 and 250 mV, respectively, to reach current densities of 10 mA cm-2 in 1 m KOH solution, with respective Tafel slopes of 117.7 and 61 mV dec-1. The catalyst requires only 403 mV of overpotential to reach 1000 mA cm-2 in OER. XANES analyses reveal average oxidation states of Co as 2.6+ and 3+ post-HER and post-OER, respectively, while Cu remains predominantly in 2+ states. Presence of Cu around Co induces orbital rehybridization through linking Se bonds; establishing a cooperative participation between Co and Cu to facilitate overall charge-transfer processes, eventually enhancing catalytic activity of (Cu,Co)Se2. Further, (Cu,Co)Se2/NF-based overall-water-splitting electrolyzer offers low cell voltage (1.65V at 10 mA cm-2) and high durability even at a high current density (at eta 50) in 1 m KOH, thus demonstrating its commercial application prospects.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages Wiley-VCH Verlagsgesellschaft, 2025. Vol. 21, no 47, article id e07915
Keywords [en]
bifunctional electrocatalyst, copper cobalt selenide, d-d interactions, enhanced hydrogen and oxygen evolution kinetics, overall-water-splitting electrolyzer
National Category
Materials Chemistry Other Chemical Engineering
Identifiers URN: urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-583547 DOI: 10.1002/smll.202507915 ISI: 001584015600001 PubMedID: 41026755 Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105018313303 OAI: oai:DiVA.org:uu-583547 DiVA, id: diva2:2050068
Funder Swedish Research Council 2026-03-312026-03-312026-03-31 Bibliographically approved