Interface Engineering of a Hollow Ag Modified Co–Phytic Acid Nanoprism toward Efficient Oxygen Evolution Reaction

It is urgent to engineer an advanced electrocatalyst toward the oxygen evolution reaction for water electrolysis, and interface engineering is an effective method to boost the catalytic activity. Here we report Ag modified Co–phytic acid (Co-PA-Ag) with a hollow nanoprism structure for the OER. Co-PA is prepared by etching a Co precursor with phytic acid, and a spontaneous redox reaction is used to load Ag nanoparticles. The close contact between Co-PA and Ag modifies the electronic structure of Co-PA-Ag, which greatly improves its catalytic activity. The Co-PA-Ag only needs an overpotential of 270 mV at 10 mA cm –2, as well as long-term durability for 35 h. In addition, an electrolyzer featuring a Co-PA-Ag anode and Pt/C cathode exhibits rapid water splitting capacity with 100% Faraday efficiency, demonstrating its practical application.