Biomass Carbon Anchored Co-N₄ Single-Atom Catalyst for Efficient Hydrogen Evolution, Oxygen Evolution and Alcohol Oxidation Reaction

Great efforts have been made to boost the performance of electrochemical catalysts by regulating the electronic and geometric structures. However, the electrochemical catalytic properties have entered the bottleneck stage only depend on these methods, especially in alkaline or neutral conditions. It is highly desired to develop new strategy to make robust electrocatalysts. In this study, an atomic Co-N-4 catalyst embedded on nitrogen-doped 3D hierarchically porous carbon has been prepared via a facile method of calcining the coordination compound. Benefiting from the unique properties of Co single-atoms, they are coordinated with the heteroatom nitrogen of o-phenylenediamine and melamine and anchored on the nitrogen-doped porous carbon carriers. The as-synthesized Co-N-LPC with a maximum Co single-atom loading of 3.82 wt % features a high specific surface area of 196.6 m(2) g(-1) and exhibits decently high hydrogen evolution, oxygen evolution and alcohol oxidation catalytic activities in 1.0 mol L-1 KOH electrolyte with competitive overpotentials of 131, 318 and 124 mV at 10 mA cm(-2) current density respectively. This study offers a cost-effective electrocatalyst for water splitting or alcohol oxidation that can be used instead of noble metals in various renewable energy storage and conversion applications.