Herein, Co/CoP nanoparticles encapsulated with N, P-doped carbon nanotubes derived from the atomic layer deposited hexagonal metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are obtained by calcinations and subsequent phosphating and are employed as electrocatalyst. The electrocatalytic performance evaluations show that the as-prepared electrocatalyst exhibits an overpotential of 342 mV at current density of 10 mA cm-2 and the Tafel slope of 74 mV dec-1 for oxygen evolution reaction (OER), which is superior to the most advanced ruthenium oxide electrocatalyst. The electrocatalyst also shows better stability than the benchmark RuO2. After 9 h, the current density is only decreased by 10%, which is far less than the loss of RuO2. Moreover, its onset potential for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is 0.93 V and follows the ideal 4-electron approach. After the stability test, the current density of the electrocatalyst retains 94% of the initial value, which is better than Pt/C. The above results indicate that the electrocatalyst has bifunctional activity and excellent stability both for OER and ORR. It is believed that this strategy provides guidance for the synthesis of cobalt phosphide/carbon-based electrocatalysts.
Keywords: Bifunctional electrocatalyst; Metal-organic frameworks; Transition metal phosphide.