Preparation of self-supporting Co₃S₄/S-rGO film catalyst for efficient oxygen evolution reaction

Exploring cheap and efficient oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts is extremely vital for the commercial application of advanced energy storage and conversion systems. Herein, a self-supporting Co3S4/S-doped reduced graphene oxide (Co3S4/S-rGO) film catalyst is successfully prepared by a blade coating coupled with high-temperature annealing strategy, and its morphology, structure and composition are measured and analyzed. It is substantiated that the as-synthesized Co3S4/S-rGO film possesses unique self-supporting structure, and is composed of uniformly dispersed Co3S4 nanoparticles and highly conductive S-rGO, which benefit the exposure of catalytic sites and electron transfer. By reason of the synergistic effect of the two individual components, the self-supporting Co3S4/S-rGO film catalyst displays outstanding catalytic performance towards OER. As a consequence, the Co3S4/S-rGO film catalyst delivers an overpotential of 341 mV at 10 mA cm-(2), and the current attenuation rate is only 2.6% after continuous operation for 4 h, verifying excellent catalytic activity and durability. Clearly, our results offers a good example for the construction of high-performance self-supporting carbon-based composite film catalysts for critical electrocatalytic reactions.