Phosphorus-doped cobalt-iron oxyhydroxide with untrafine nanosheet structure enable efficient oxygen evolution electrocatalysis

Although explosive progresses have been achieved in the field of water splitting, the design and development of stable and inexpensive electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution remain a formidable challenge. Herein, the cost-efficient two dimensional (2D) phosphorus-doped CoFe oxyhydroxide nanosheets (denoted as CoFeP NSs) are successfully engineered and showing exceptional oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity and chemical stability in 1 M KOH solution. This unique 2D nanosheet structure facilitates the mass transfer and electron transport, resulting in the remarkable OER activity that delivers a current density of 10 mA cm−2 at a low overpotential of 305 mV with an ultra-small Tafel slope 49.6 mV/dec. More significantly, the doped P also plays a vital role in modulating the surface active sites, leading to the substantial enhancement of electrocatalytic performances. Our study provides a facile one-pot method for the successful fabrication of 2D P-doped CoFe NSs which display superior electrocatalytic performance, shedding great promise for environment and energy-related fields.