Self-assembled iron modulated CoO embedded B-doped carbon nanochain for boosting oxygen evolution reaction

The sluggish electro-kinetics of electron-driven water oxidation restricts the electrocatalyst-assisted electrical to life-valued product conversion applications. Herein, for the first time, self-assembled nanochain network, iron-doped cobalt oxide (Fe–CoO) embedded boron-doped carbon nanotubes (B-CNT), is synthesized via a facile self-assembly-hydrolysis strategy followed by Ostwald-ripening assisted crystal-growth approach. Due to its unique features, such as porous nanochain, low dimensional network, heteroatom distribution, and electronic modulated-rich active sites, it can synergistically accelerate the complicated multistep 4e− electron transfer kinetics, which guarantees Fe–CoO@B-CNT delivering extraordinary OER activity. Herein, a very low Tafel (54.6 mV/dev) and the overpotential of 260 mV to achieve a partial current density of 10 mAcm−2 in alkaline medium. Thus outperforms noble-metal and most cobalt/carbon-based electrocatalysts; furthermore, the hybrid delivers outstanding physicochemical stability over 48 h deprived of degradation. This work gives new insights into the rational designing and self-assembling fabrication of a hetero-atom doped hierarchical nanochain network with high conductivity and abundant active sites to significantly boost water oxidation activity.