Heterojunction‐assisted Co3S4@Co3O4 core – shell octahedrons for supercapacitors and both oxygen and carbon dioxide reduction reactions

Abstract

Expedition of electron transfer efficiency and optimization of surface reactant adsorption products desorption processes are two main challenges for developing non-noble catalysts in the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and CO2 reduction reaction (CRR). A heterojunction prototype on Co3 S4 @Co3 O4 core-shell octahedron structure is established via hydrothermal lattice anion exchange protocol to implement the electroreduction of oxygen and carbon dioxide with high performance. The synergistic bifunctional catalyst consists of p-type Co3 O4 core and n-type Co3 S4 shell, which afford high surface electron density along with high capacitance without sacrificing mechanical robustness. A four electron ORR process, identical to the Pt catalyzed ORR, is validated using the core-shell octahedron catalyst. The synergistic interaction between cobalt sulfide and cobalt oxide bicatalyst reduces the activation energy to convert CO2 into adsorbed intermediates and hereby enables CRR to run at a low overpotential, with formate as the highly selective main product at a high faraday efficiency of 85.3%. The remarkable performance can be ascribed to the synergistic coupling effect of the structured co-catalysts; heterojunction structure expedites the electron transfer efficiency and optimizes surface reactant adsorption product desorption processes, which also provide theoretical and pragmatic guideline for catalyst development and mechanism explorations.