Understanding the Surface Reconstruction on Ternary WxCoBx for Water Oxidation and Zinc–Air Battery Applications

Abstract

Here, the synthesis of a series of pure phase metal borides is reported, including WB, CoB, WCoB, and W2CoB2, and their surface reconstruction is studied under the electrochemical activation in alkaline solution. A cyclic voltammetric activation is found to enhance the activity of the CoB and W2CoB2 precatalysts due to the transformation of their surfaces into the amorphous CoOOH layer with a thickness of 3–4 nm. However, such surface transformation does not happen on the WB and WCoB due to their superior structure stability under the applied voltage, highlighting the importance of metal components for the surface reconstruction process. It is found that, compared with CoB, the W2CoB2 surface shows a quicker reconstruction with a larger active surface area due to the selective leaching of the W from its surface. In the meantime, the metallic W2CoB2 core underneath the CoOOH layer shows a better promotion of its oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performance than CoB. Therefore, the ternary W2CoB2 shows better OER performance than the CoB, as well as the WB and WCoB. It is also found that the mixture of W2CoB2 with Pt/C as the catalysts in air electrode for rechargeable Zn–air battery (ZAB), shows better performance than the IrO2–Pt/C couple-based ZAB. © 2022 Wiley-VCH GmbH.