Coordination Engineering of Gloves-C, Mn, and Co-Based (Co–Mn)_v–O–C to Promote Electrochemical–/–Solar Energy-Driven Water Splitting with Regenerative Efficiencies

Recycling of solid waste into electrocatalysts for clean energy production achieves a win–win strategy for waste utilization and environmental remediation. To address the immense disruption in waste management systems, we used carbonized disposed gloves as a carbon source to synthesize defect-rich (Co–Mn)v–O–C, which catalyzed oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) with overpotentials of 331 mV (83 mV dec–1, 3.6 Ω) and 170 mV (76 mV dec–1, 2.4 Ω), respectively, to reach 10 mA cm–2. The stability of (Co–Mn)v–O–C over 100 h at 1.60 V inferred its robustness. The kinetic study via operando EIS infers less resistance with high conductivity to improve the OER kinetics of the (Co–Mn)v–O–C. Further, the exceptional OER activity was sustained by Bode analysis. The low activation energy (Ea) for (Co–Mn)v–O–C (2.11 kJ mol–1) signifies its potential toward OER. Finally, the alkaline- and solar-driven electrolyzer (Co–Mn)v–O–C+,– was explored for total water splitting at 1.60 V to attain 10 mA cm–2 with great catalytic stability (100 h). This work established the sustainable usage of waste materials, which makes a contribution to resource management with low energy consumption and reduced pollution.