Dual metal ligand strategy tailoring bifunctional oxygen electrocatalytic performance

The amorphous electrocatalysts with lower periodic structure take over a vital role in oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) of oxygen electrode of fuel cell and metal-air batteries . However, the controllable synthesis of amorphous electrocatalysts with a certain periodic range still faces a certain challenge. Herein, different crystallization period is controllably synthesized by adjusting two kind of organic ligands in the competitive complexation process of coordinating metal ions . Except for crystallization, the competitive complexation also alters the chemical composition of electrocatalyst. The CoO nanoparticles with the short-range ordered structure supported on N,P codoped carbon flakes showcase local defect of the positional deviation along with different crystallization orientation while endow superior bifunctional activity for ORR and OER with high half-wave potential of 0.841 V for ORR and overpotential at 10 mAcm −2 of 360 mV for OER along with a low voltage gap of 0.77 V even in 1 M KOH solution.