An ultra-high electrochemical performance of surface-rich boron induced multi-metal centered heterocatalyst for overall water splitting

Preparing highly active and stable bifunctional electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution and oxygen evolution reactions (HER/OER) in alkaline conditions is essential to reducing energy losses in the water-alkali industry but challenging undertaking. A simple room- temperature boronization approach is projected to fabricate boronated CuCo2O4/NiO nanoarrays for bifunctional catalytic activities. Herein, a modest hydrothermal process is applied to cultivate heterostructure CuCo2O4/NiO nanoarrays by spanning ternary metal (Cu-Co-Ni) oxides followed by a boronization strategy on a self-supporting nickel foam substrate. The outcome of the experiment revealed that ultra-surface optimization with boron permits accelerated electron transfer and multiplies the access of surface coordinative unsaturated active sites. As a result, B-CuCo2O4/NiO nanoarrays supported on nickel foam (NF) require fewer overpotentials of 52 mV for the hydrogen evolution reaction and 294 mV for the oxygen evolution reaction to achieve a current density of 20 mA cm-2. Surprisingly, employing B-CuCo2O4/NiO@NF as a bifunctional electrocatalyst for overall water splitting empowers an alkaline electrolyzer with a current density of 10 mA cm-2 and a cell voltage of 1.54 V. The current study could pave the groundwork for the rise of boron-induced Cu-Co-Ni oxides hetero-assemblies for electrocatalysis. (c) 2023 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.