Cobalt nanocrystals encapsulated in heteroatom-rich porous carbons derived from conjugated microporous polymers for efficient electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Cobalt nanocrystals encapsulated in N,O‐dual‐doped porous carbons as efficient and stable electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) are reported. A heteroatom‐rich‐conjugated microporous polymer is first chemically deposited on a carbon fiber cloth, and after addition of a cobalt salt, pyrolyzed to produce a heteroatom‐doped C/Co nanocrystal composite. With this process, the use of additional binders for preparation of electrodes can be avoided. With a trace cobalt loading (0.46 wt%), the electrodes achieve a low Tafel slope of 46 mV dec−1 and overpotential of only 69 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm−2 in 0.5 m H2SO4. Experimental and computational studies reveal that the superior HER behavior is due to a decreased free energy of hydrogen adsorption, induced by i) electrons transferred from the cobalt nanocrystals to graphite layers and ii) N,O‐dual doping reduced the Fermi level of neighboring C atoms