Covalent organic polymer assisted synthesis of bimetallic electrocatalysts with multicomponent active dopants for efficient oxygen evolution reaction

Highlights: • A new heteroatom-rich (P, S and N) covalent organic polymer was designed and synthesized. • P/S/N multi-doped carbon/carbon nanotubes anchored with Co_9-xNi_xS₈ and CoNiP nanoparticles was fabricated. • The optimized catalyst showed efficient and long-term stable electrocatalytic oxygen evolution. -- Abstract: The development of highly active and stable electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction is of great importance for renewable-energy. Herein, a novel hybrid nanomaterial with multicomponent active dopants was conveniently fabricated by pyrolytic conversion from a bimetallic ion-decorated heteroatom-rich (P, S and N) covalent organic polymer (COP) composite. The unique nanostructure with innumerable Co_9-xNi_xS₈ and CoNiP nanoparticles anchored on P/S/N multi-doped carbon/carbon nanotubes, through in situ electrochemical reconstruction effectively provides substantial active sites and promotes charge transfer, and hence affords outstanding activity with a low overpotential of 270 mV at 10 mA cm⁻² and excellent stability for oxygen evolution reaction based on two runs of 10-h durability test in alkaline solution, which much outperformed the fewer-component counterparts.