F-doped Co3O4 with Pt-like activity and excellent stability for hydrogen evolution reaction in alkaline media

The development of Pt-like active and highly stable non-noble metal catalysts is vital for promoting hydrogen production by water electrolysis. Herein, we develop strong electronegative heteroatom fluorine (F) doped decoration Co3O4 (F-Co3O4) as an effective catalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in 1 M KOH. As expected, the chemical states, specific surface area, and defects of Co3O4 are regulated without changing phase composition after F-doped decoration. As a result, a remarkable reduction in an overpotential by about 90 mV (@10 mA cm-2, 1 M KOH) for F-Co3O4 compared with Co3O4 is realized. It only needs an overpotential of 46 mV at 10 mA cm-2 is comparable to Pt/C. More importantly, F-Co3O4 also shows super stability up to 100 h. Therefore, our exploration provides a novelty heteroatom-doped decoration non-precious metal oxide catalysts for hydrogen evolution reactions and other applications.