Nitrogen-doped carbon nanotube encapsulated CoCu bimetallic alloy particles to promote efficient oxygen evolution reaction via electronic structure regulation.

The rational design of efficient and cost-effective transition metal alloy electrocatalysts represents a huge challenge for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Herein, the bimetallic CoCu-MOF is employed as a template to significantly enhance the catalytic activity through in situ pyrolysis into melamine-assisted nitrogen-doped carbon nanotube (NCNT) encapsulated metal alloy electrocatalyst (Co1Cu1@NCNT/CC). The Co1Cu1@NCNT/CC demonstrates superior OER activity in 1 M KOH. The overpotential is 263 mV at 10 mA cm-2. Meanwhile, the catalyst exhibits superior long-term stability. The experimental results and density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal the bimetallic synergies regulate the electronic structure and strong electronic metal-support interaction (EMSI) of the catalysts, increase the electron transport efficiency and optimize the adsorption capacity of oxygen-containing intermediates, leading to a significant improvement in both the OER activity and stability.