A platinum oxide decorated amorphous cobalt oxide hydroxide nanosheet array towards alkaline hydrogen evolution

Abstract

We report the design of an amorphous cobalt oxide hydroxide nanosheet array with anchored platinum oxide. This electrocatalyst can efficiently catalyze the hydrogen evolution reaction with outstanding activity due to the strong synergetic effect derived from its favorable composition and structure. Density functional theory calculations further demonstrate that it can greatly reduce water dissociation barriers and tune the free energy of H* adsorption close to the optimized value.