Cu-alanine complex-derived CuO electrocatalysts with hierarchical nanostructures for efficient oxygen evolution

Nowadays,Cu-based materials have attracted extensive attention as electrocatalysts,while the inherent reason of the filling of high anti-bonding state of Cu d band(3 d^(10)4 s^(1))makes it difficult to hybridize with O2 p band of oxygen intermediates during the adsorption process of oxygen evolution reaction(OER).To increase the efficiency of Cu-based electrocatalysts,efforts have been made to optimize the electronic structures and to create surface defects and hierarchical nanostructures with more exposed accessible active sites.Herein,we report a facile method for preparing CuO electrocatalysts with hierarchical nanostructures using the Cu-alanine complex as a precursor through room-temperature chemical precipitation and subsequent calcination in air.Investigations of products obtained at different calcination temperatures reveal the relationship between OER activities and the material characteristics such as specific surface areas,crystal growth orientations,and element components.The product obtained at 500℃exhibits the smallest overpotential of 290 mV in 1.0 mol/L KOH for electrocatalyzing OER.Combining with various characterizations of CuO electrocatalysts after OER activities,the possible catalytic mechanism and the influence factors of their OER performance are also discussed.