Regulating the Spin State of Metal and Metal Carbide Heterojunctions for Efficient Oxygen Evolution

Developing high-performance electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is of importance for improving the overall efficiency of water splitting. Herein, the CoFe/(CoxFe1–x)3Mo3C heterojunction is purposely designed as an OER catalyst, which displays a low overpotential of 293 mV for affording a current density of 10 mA cm–2 and a small Tafel slope of 48 mV/dec. Various characterization results demonstrate that the significant work-function difference between CoFe and (CoxFe1–x)3Mo3C can induce interfacial charge redistribution, which results in the formation of Co and Fe sites with a high-spin state, thus stimulating the surface phase reconstruction of CoFe/(CoxFe1–x)3Mo3C to corresponding active oxyhydroxide. Meanwhile, the electrochemical leaching of Mo ions from the initial structure can contribute to the formation of defective sites, further benefiting OH– adsorption and surface oxidation. Moreover, the remaining CoFe can accelerate electron migration during the electrocatalytic process. This study presents new insights into constructing efficient OER electrocatalysts with an optimized spin-state configuration via interfacial engineering.