Nanoporous Zn-doped Co3O4 sheets with single-unit-cell-wide lateral surfaces for efficient oxygen evolution and water splitting

A Zn-doped Co3O4 electrocatalyst consisting of nanoporous sheets was reported. The sheets contained abundant lateral surfaces with single-unit-cell width (0.84 ± 0.03 nm), which exposed more oxygen vacancies than conventional base and top surfaces, causing unparalleled performances when the sheets catalyzed oxygen evolution reaction (OER). They also efficiently catalyzed hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), enabling them to work as bifunctional electrodes for overall water splitting (OWS). Their performances for OWS were also unparalleled.396