Coordination Engineering of Gloves-C, Mn, and Co-Based (Co–Mn)v–O–C to Promote Electrochemical–/–Solar Energy-Driven Water Splitting with Regenerative Efficiencies

Recycling of solid waste into electrocatalysts for clean energy production achieves a win–win strategy for waste utilization and environmental remediation. To address the immense disruption in waste management systems, we used carbonized disposed gloves as a carbon source to synthesize defect-rich (Co–Mn)_v–O–C, which catalyzed oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) with overpotentials of 331 mV (83 mV dec^–1, 3.6 Ω) and 170 mV (76 mV dec^–1, 2.4 Ω), respectively, to reach 10 mA cm^–2. The stability of (Co–Mn)_v–O–C over 100 h at 1.60 V inferred its robustness. The kinetic study via operando EIS infers less resistance with high conductivity to improve the OER kinetics of the (Co–Mn)_v–O–C. Further, the exceptional OER activity was sustained by Bode analysis. The low activation energy (E_a) for (Co–Mn)_v–O–C (2.11 kJ mol^–1) signifies its potential toward OER. Finally, the alkaline- and solar-driven electrolyzer (Co–Mn)_v–O–C^+,– was explored for total water splitting at 1.60 V to attain 10 mA cm^–2 with great catalytic stability (100 h). This work established the sustainable usage of waste materials, which makes a contribution to resource management with low energy consumption and reduced pollution.