Engineering the Lattice and Electronic Configurations of N‐Rich‐CoMoCN by Mo Doping and N Enrichment for Enhanced Water Splitting
4 affiliations
- 1School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Inner Mongolia University of Science & Technology Baotou China
- 2Centre for Atomaterials and Nanomanufacturing (CAN) School of Science RMIT University Melbourne Victoria Australia
- 3Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology Chinese Academy of Science Qingdao China
- 4College of Chemical and Biological Engineering Shandong University of Science and Technology Qingdao Shandong China
Abstract
Developing efficient, low‐cost electrocatalysts for overall water splitting (OWS) is critical for advancing hydrogen energy technologies. Here, we fabricate Mo‐incorporated N‐rich‐CoMoCN electrocatalyst from ZIF‐67 (CoCN material), ammonium molybdate, and melamine precursors. This catalyst, featuring the predominant Co/Co6Mo6C2 heterojunction and abundant surface‐layered architecture, collectively provides an ideal microenvironment for catalytic reactions and facilitates charge transfer. In alkaline media, it exhibits outstanding bifunctional activity, delivering overpotentials of only 107 and 256 mV for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER), respectively, at a current density of 10 mA cm−2, far surpassing the performance of CoCN and CoMoCN. Notably, the N‐rich‐CoMoCN‐based electrolyzer requires only 1.52 V to achieve 10 mA cm−2 in a two‐electrode system with 1.0 M KOH. The comprehensive structural and electrochemical characterizations reveal that the incorporation of Mo and N modulates the catalyst's morphology as well as lattice and electronic configurations, resulting in the strong electronic interaction between Co, Mo, and N, thereby accelerating the intrinsic reaction kinetics. Density functional theory (DFT) calculation further uncovers that N enrichment can effectively modulate the electronic state distribution of Co and Mo, thereby promoting interfacial charge rearrangement and regulating the d‐band center of the catalyst. The synergistic effect between heterostructure construction and N enrichment optimizes the electronic structure and surface energy of the N‐rich‐CoMoCN catalyst, which facilitates charge transfer, ultimately leading to enhanced electrocatalytic activity in OWS performance. This work highlights an efficient strategy for designing high‐performance bifunctional catalysts from MOF‐derived heterostructures for sustainable hydrogen production.
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BibTeX
@article{yang2026engineering,
title = {{Engineering the Lattice and Electronic Configurations of N‐Rich‐CoMoCN by Mo Doping and N Enrichment for Enhanced Water Splitting}},
author = {Huimin Yang and Yue Xiao and Zhuo Wang and Mingfang Zhang and Haimei Xu and Yunzhao Fan and Chao Feng and Qingcheng Hu and Chunhua Yuan and Yang Fu and Lingfeng Zhu and Songbo Li and Tianyi Ma},
journal = {EcoEnergy},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1002/ece2.70069},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1002/ece2.70069},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Engineering the Lattice and Electronic Configurations of N‐Rich‐CoMoCN by Mo Doping and N Enrichment for Enhanced Water Splitting
AU - Huimin Yang
AU - Yue Xiao
AU - Zhuo Wang
AU - Mingfang Zhang
AU - Haimei Xu
AU - Yunzhao Fan
AU - Chao Feng
AU - Qingcheng Hu
AU - Chunhua Yuan
AU - Yang Fu
AU - Lingfeng Zhu
AU - Songbo Li
AU - Tianyi Ma
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/24
JO - EcoEnergy
DO - 10.1002/ece2.70069
UR - https://doi.org/10.1002/ece2.70069
AB - Developing efficient, low‐cost electrocatalysts for overall water splitting (OWS) is critical for advancing hydrogen energy technologies. Here, we fabricate Mo‐incorporated N‐rich‐CoMoCN electrocatalyst from ZIF‐67 (CoCN material), ammonium molybdate, and melamine precursors. This catalyst, featuring the predominant Co/Co6Mo6C2 heterojunction and abundant surface‐layered architecture, collectively provides an ideal microenvironment for catalytic reactions and facilitates charge transfer. In alkaline media, it exhibits outstanding bifunctional activity, delivering overpotentials of only 107 and 256 mV for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER), respectively, at a current density of 10 mA cm−2, far surpassing the performance of CoCN and CoMoCN. Notably, the N‐rich‐CoMoCN‐based electrolyzer requires only 1.52 V to achieve 10 mA cm−2 in a two‐electrode system with 1.0 M KOH. The comprehensive structural and electrochemical characterizations reveal that the incorporation of Mo and N modulates the catalyst's morphology as well as lattice and electronic configurations, resulting in the strong electronic interaction between Co, Mo, and N, thereby accelerating the intrinsic reaction kinetics. Density functional theory (DFT) calculation further uncovers that N enrichment can effectively modulate the electronic state distribution of Co and Mo, thereby promoting interfacial charge rearrangement and regulating the d‐band center of the catalyst. The synergistic effect between heterostructure construction and N enrichment optimizes the electronic structure and surface energy of the N‐rich‐CoMoCN catalyst, which facilitates charge transfer, ultimately leading to enhanced electrocatalytic activity in OWS performance. This work highlights an efficient strategy for designing high‐performance bifunctional catalysts from MOF‐derived heterostructures for sustainable hydrogen production.
SN - 2835-9399
SN - 2835-9380
ER -