title: Spent Tea Leaf Templating of Cobalt-Based Mixed Oxide Nanocrystals for Water Oxidation.
abstract: The facile synthesis of nanostructured cobalt oxides using spent tea leaves as a hard template is reported. Following an impregnation-calcination and template removal pathway, sheetlike structures containing nanosized crystallites of Co3O4are obtained. Co3O4incorporated with Cu, Ni, Fe, and Mn (M/Co = 1/8 atomic ratio) are also prepared, and the materials are thoroughly characterized using X-ray diffraction, electron microscopy, and N2sorption. The method is applicable to several commercial tea leaves and is successfully scaled up to prepare over 7 g of Co3O4with the same nanostructure. The oxides are then tested for electrochemical water oxidation, and Cu, Ni, and Fe incorporations show beneficial effect on the catalytic activity of Co3O4, achieving performance comparable to levels from benchmark electrocatalysts. These data suggest that tea leaf templating can be utilized as a facile and promising approach to prepare nanostructured functional catalyst.
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, Kaiser-Wilhelm-Platz 1, D-45470 Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany.
authors.forename: Xiaohui
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: Materials Science and Engineering, School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy, Arizona State University , Tempe, Arizona 85287, United States.
authors.forename: Candace K
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, Kaiser-Wilhelm-Platz 1, D-45470 Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany.
authors.forename: Harun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tüysüz
keywords: cobalt oxide; hard templating; nanocrystal; oxygen evolution; spent tea leaves