Anisotropic structural carbon skeleton decorated with Co nanoparticles towards oxygen evolution reaction

Hierarchical carbon skeletons derived from natural wood can be employed as the substrates to fabricate selfsupported catalysts. The typically three sections (cross section, radial section, and tangential section) of wood would significantly affect the electrocatalytic performance. Therefore, the correlations between anisotropy structure of wood derived hierarchical carbon skeletons and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performances was systematically investigated. The cross-sectional wood-derived carbon decorated with Co nanoparticles requires an overpotential of 370 mV to deliver 50 mA cm-2 superior to those of radial-sectional and tangential-sectional counterparts. The cross-section of wood derived carbon skeleton possesses higher content of Co nanoparticles, which is accounted for the enhanced OER catalytic activity. This work highlights the critical contribution of anisotropy of carbon skeletons in promoting the OER properties and provides a new paradigm for designing advanced electrocatalysts.