Co3S4-pyrolysis lotus fiber flexible textile as a hybrid electrocatalyst for overall water splitting

Abstract

Electrocatalytic overall water splitting (OWS), a pivotal approach in addressing the global energy crisis, aims to produce hydrogen and oxygen. However, most of the catalysts in powder form are adhesively bounding to the electrodes, resulting in catalyst detachment by bubble generation and other uncertain interference, and eventually reducing the OWS performance. To surmount this challenge, we synthesized a hybrid material of Co₃S₄- pyrolysis lotus fiber (labeled as Co₃S₄-pLF) textile by hydrothermal and high-temperature pyrolysis processes for electrocatalytic OWS. Owing to the natural LF textile exposing the uniformly distributed functional groups (OH, NH₂, etc.) to anchor Co₃S₄ nanoparticles with hierarchical porous structure and outstanding hydrophily, the hybrid Co₃S₄-pLF catalyst shows low overpotentials at 10 mA cm⁻² (η_{10, HER} = 100 mV η_{10, OER} = 240 mV) alongside prolonged operational stability during electrocatalytic reactions. Theoretical calculations reveal that the electron transfer from pLF to Co₃S₄ in the hybrid Co₃S₄-pLF is beneficial to the electrocatalytic process. This work will shed light on the development of nature-inspired carbon-based materials in hybrid electrocatalysts for OWS.