Morphology-controlled synthesis of CoMoO4 nanoarchitectures anchored on carbon cloth for high-efficiency oxygen oxidation reaction

Novel CoMoO4 nanoarrays with different morphologies are anchored on a carbon cloth via a simple hydrothermal method by adjusting the Co/Mo atom ratio. The in situ growth and tight immobilization of the CoMoO4 nanocomposite on the carbon cloth can facilitate the electrolyte infiltration and electrons transfer rate at the contact interface. Therefore, the free-standing electrode of CoMoO4/carbon cloth with interconnected nanosheets shows superior electrocatalytic activity, and the overpotential of 286 mV is obtained at 15 mA cm−2 in alkaline solution. Moreover, the catalyst also exhibits a small Tafel slope of 67 mV dec−1 as well as good stability. The relationship between the active material morphology, contact interface and the electrocatalytic performance is also discussed. As the carbon cloth is commercially available, this simple but effective structural controlling method demonstrates a new large-scale practical electrode fabrication technique for high performance OER electrodes and large-scale water splitting.