Multifunctional Active-Center-Transferable Platinum/Lithium Cobalt Oxide Heterostructured Electrocatalysts towards Superior Water Splitting.

Designing cost-effective and efficient electrocatalysts plays a pivotal role in advancing the development of electrochemical water splitting for hydrogen generation. Herein, multifunctional active-center-transferable heterostructured electrocatalysts, platinum/lithium cobalt oxide (Pt/LiCoO ) composites with Pt nanoparticles (Pt NPs) anchored on LiCoO nanosheets, are designed towards highly efficient water splitting. In this electrocatalyst system, the active center can be alternatively switched between Pt species and LiCoO for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER), respectively. Specifically, Pt species are the active centers and LiCoO acts as the co-catalyst for HER, whereas the active center transfers to LiCoO and Pt turns into the co-catalyst for OER. The unique architecture of Pt/LiCoO heterostructure provides abundant interfaces with favorable electronic structure and coordination environment towards optimal adsorption behavior of reaction intermediates. The 30 % Pt/LiCoO heterostructured electrocatalyst delivers low overpotentials of 61 and 285 mV to achieve 10 mA cm for HER and OER in alkaline medium, respectively.