Fe-Treated Heteroatom (S/N/B/P)-Doped Graphene Electrocatalysts for Water Oxidation

Anodic water splitting is driven by hydroxide (OH–) adsorption on the catalyst surface and consequent O2 desorption. In this work, various heteroatoms (S/N/B/P) with different electronegativities and oxophilicities are introduced to alter the catalytic activity of reduced graphene oxide (RGO) as a catalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). It is found that, surprisingly, S-doped RGO outperforms the other RGOs doped with more electropositive or electronegative and more oxophilic heteroatoms, and this effect becomes more prominent after Fe treatment of the respective catalysts. Herein, we evaluate the OER activity of a series of Fe-treated mono-heteroatom (S/N/B/P)-doped RGO (Fe-X-G) catalysts, among which interestingly S-doped RGO catalyst treated with Fe (Fe-S-G) is found to show better OER activity than the well-known active Fe-N-C catalyst, demonstrating the best activity among all of the prepared catalysts, close to that of the state of the art IrO2/C catalyst, along with pronounced long-term st...