CeO2 nanoparticles-decorated CoP nanocubes for accelerating alkaline electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction

Constructing heterojunction interface as an active catalyst is an effective strategy to boost electrocatalytic activity of oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Herein, we report an interfacial CoP/CeO2 heterostructure catalyst constructed by interface engineering and selective phosphorization procedure. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) suggests that coupling CeO2 nanoparticles on the surface of CoP will generate interfacial interaction at the two-phase interface, resulting in electron transfer between CoP and CeO2 components at the interface. Benefitting from the interfacial interaction, large exposed interface area, and luxuriant mesopores structure, CoP/CeO2 shows fascinating alkaline OER performance. At the current densities of 10 and 50 mA cm−2, the optimal CoP/CeO2 heterojunction exhibits lower overpotential (257 and 298 mV) than either CoP (288 and 354 mV) or RuO2 (305 and 409 mV). This work provides a facile synthetic protocol for constructing heterostructure interfaces to improve OER performance.