Nanotechnology

Tafel equation

Electrode

Organic chemistry

Heteroatom

Ring (chemistry)

Electrocatalyst

Nickel

Photocatalysis

Composite number

Oxygen evolution

Engineering

Catalysis

Carbon fibers

Physical chemistry

Overpotential

Composite material

Inorganic chemistry

Chemistry

Metallurgy

Materials science

Graphene

Sulfur

Water splitting

Chemical engineering

Nanosheet

Electrochemistry

Nature Communications

Developing low-cost electrocatalysts to replace precious Ir-based materials is key for oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Here, we report atomically dispersed nickel coordinated with nitrogen and sulfur species in porous carbon nanosheets as an electrocatalyst exhibiting excellent activity and durability for OER with a low overpotential of 1.51 V at 10 mA cm −2 and a small Tafel slope of 45 mV dec −1 in alkaline media. Such electrocatalyst represents the best among all reported transition metal- and/or heteroatom-doped carbon electrocatalysts and is even superior to benchmark Ir/C. Theoretical and experimental results demonstrate that the well-dispersed molecular S|NiN x species act as active sites for catalyzing OER. The atomic structure of S|NiN x centers in the carbon matrix is clearly disclosed by aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy and synchrotron radiation X-ray absorption spectroscopy together with computational simulations. An integrated photoanode of nanocarbon on a Fe 2 O 3 nanosheet array enables highly active solar-driven oxygen production.

Atomically dispersed nickel–nitrogen–sulfur species anchored on porous carbon nanosheets for efficient water oxidation