Coupling of ultrasmall and small Co_xP nanoparticles confined in porous SiO₂ matrix for a robust oxygen evolution reaction

Rational design of electrocatalysts is important for a sustainable oxygen evolution reaction (OER). It is still a huge challenge to engineer active sites in multi-sizes and multi-components simultaneously. Here, a series of CoP nanoparticles (NPs) confined in an SiO₂ matrix (SiO₂/Co_xP) is designed and synthesized as OER electrocatalysts. The phosphorization of the hydrolyzed Co-phyllosilicate promotes the formation of ultrasmall and small Co₂P and CoP. These are firmly confined in the SiO₂ matrix. The coupling of multi-size and multi-component CoP catalysts can regulate reaction kinetics and electron transfer ability, enrich the active sites, and eventually promote the intrinsic OER activity. The SiO₂ matrix provides abundant porous structure and oxygen vacancies, and these facilitate the exposure of active sites and improve conductivity. Because of the synergy and interplay of multi-sized/component Co_xP NPs and the porous SiO₂ matrix, the unique SiO₂/CoP heterostructure exhibits low overpotential (293 ​mV@10 ​mA ​cm^-2), and robust stability (decay 12 ​mV after 5000 CV cycles, 97.4% of initial current after 100 ​h chronoamperometric) for the OER process, exceeding many advanced metal phosphide electrocatalysts. This work provides a novel tactic to design low-cost, simple, and highly efficient OER electrocatalysts.