Co-Mo-P carbon nanospheres derived from metal-organic frameworks as a high-performance electrocatalyst towards efficient water splitting

Herein, we propose a novel post-modification synthesis strategy to prepare M-doped (M = Fe, Co, Mo, etc.) transition metal phosphides (TMPs) composed of Co and MoP embedded in nitrogen-doped carbon nanospheres (denoted as Co-Mo-P@NCNS-600). Through engineering of the anion chemistry of cobaltosic oxide nanoparticles to adjust the composition, morphology and crystallographic orientation of the Mo-based metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), and then a pyrolysis-phosphidation process, the Co-Mo-P@NCNS-600 electrocatalyst exhibits excellent electrocatalytic performance (overpotentials (eta(10)) of 270 mV for the oxygen evolution reaction and 62 mV for the hydrogen evolution reaction), benefiting from the well-designed structure and the electronic state control. Furthermore, when the Co-Mo-P@NCNS-600 is used in a water-splitting device, it can reach a 10 mA cm(-2) current density at low potential (1.58 V), and exhibits excellent stability for 380 000 s (105.6 h). Density functional theory (DFT) results indicate that the successful construction of the Co-Mo-P active site will effectively modulate the intrinsic electronic properties and improve the electrochemical performance.