N-doped cobalt disulfide decorated on carbon cloth as an efficient electrode for oxygen generation

Developing the cost-effective catalyst based on earth-abundant materials is a crucial demand for water oxidation. Doping heteroatom into catalysts is regarded as an effective strategy to regulate electronic configuration and improve the catalytic performance of water oxidation. In this work, N-doped CoS2 on carbon cloth is fabricated by one-step synthesis, in which thiourea acts as both sulfur and nitrogen sources. The N-doped cobalt disulfide shows superior catalytic activity for oxygen evolution, with a low overpotential of 240 mV for 10 mA cm−2, small Tafel slope (56 mV dec−1) and high turnover frequency due to the modification with electronic structure after incorporation of N atom. Moreover, the incorporation of N atom provides a distinctive perspective of doping other heteroatom into the material for modifying the electrochemical properties.