V doped hollow Co3O4 nanoprisms with a modulated electronic structure for high-performance oxygen evolution reaction†

The sluggish oxygen evolution reaction (OER) kinetics in water splitting makes it crucial to design highly active OER catalysts. Spinel oxides are considered as promising candidates due to their various compositions, valence states and electronic configurations. This paper reports a facile procedure to prepare V-doped hollow Co₃O₄ nanoprisms for the OER. The introduction of V can effectively modulate the electronic structure of Co₃O₄, therefore improving its intrinsic catalytic activity. The hollow prismatic structure ensures the exposure of catalytically active sites and rapid mass transport, thereby improving the extrinsic catalytic activity. As a result, optimized V-Co₃O₄-5 exhibits a small overpotential of 288 mV at 10 mA cm⁻² with good durability. This work provides an innovative direction for designing efficient OER electrocatalysts via heteroatom doping.