Ultrafast Activating Strategy To Significantly Enhance The Electrocatalysis Of Commercial Carbon Cloth For Oxygen Evolution Reaction And Overall Water Splitting

It is of desirability to prepare in situ self-supporting electrocatalysts not only to meet application requirements but also to simplify the production process of working electrodes. In this work, oxygen-containing free-standing carbon cloth with abundant pores (e-CC-H-2) has been obtained through a facile two-step electrochemical oxidation and hydrogen etching method. Compared to the previous activation strategies of carbon cloth (such as chemical activation), this method has the advantages of simplicity, time-saving, low-cost and energy-saving. Benefiting from the abundance of defects and oxygen-containing functional groups that are active sites for oxygen evolution reaction, the obtained e-CC-H-2 shows excellent electrocatalytic activity, with a low overpotential of 350 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm(-2), a low Tafel slope (127 mV dec(-1)) and stable electrochemical activity. This strategy paves the way for the application of functionalized and flexible materials in the field of electrochemical energy storage.