Developing a Cobalt Phosphide Catalyst with Combined Cobalt Defects and Phosphorus Vacancies to Boost Oxygen Evolution Reaction

Defect engineering, by adjusting the surface charge and active sites of CoP catalysts, significantly enhances the efficiency of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). We have developed a new Co_1-xP_v catalyst that has both cobalt defects and phosphorus vacancies, demonstrating excellent OER performance. Under both basic and acidic media, the catalyst incurs a modest overvoltage, with 238 mV and 249 mV needed, respectively, to attain a current density of 10 mA cm^-2. In the practical test of alkaline electrocatalytic water splitting (EWS), the Co_1-xP_v || Pt/C EWS shows a low cell voltage of 1.51 V and superior performance compared to the noble metal-based EWS (RuO₂ || Pt/C, 1.66 V). This catalyst's exceptional catalytic efficiency and longevity are mainly attributed to its tunable electronic structure. The presence of cobalt defects facilitates the transformation of Co²⁺ to Co³⁺, while phosphorus vacancies enhance the interaction with oxygen species (*OH, *O, *OOH), working in concert to improve the OER efficiency. This strategy offers a new approach to designing transition metal phosphide catalysts with coexisting metal defects and phosphorus vacancies, which is crucial for improving energy conversion efficiency and catalyst performance.