Oxygen vacancies enriched Co3O4 nanoflowers with single layer porous structures for water splitting.

Vacancy enriched electrocatalysts are crucial in enhancing the catalytic activity for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) through a defect engineering. Herein, oxygen vacancies enriched Co 3 O 4 nanoflowers with single layer porous structures are made to study their catalytic activity toward water splitting. The as-synthesized defects enriched Co 3 O 4 presents flowers-like nanostructures and possesses high specific surface area (84 m2 g−1) with uniform pore size (4 nm). On behalf of the unique morphology and electronic structure, the Co 3 O 4 nanoflowers display enhanced HER and OER performances compared with commercial Co 3 O 4 nanoparticles (∼50 nm). In addition, it still presents good catalytic without remarkably decay in potential over 9 days. • Oxygen vacancies enriched Co 3 O 4 nanoflowers with single layer porous structures are synthesized. • The as-synthesized electrocatalyst displays superior water splitting performances. • The enhanced performances could be attributed to the unique morphology and electronic structure. • The catalytic activity is maintained for at least 9 days without remarkably decay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]