Pulsed laser deposition of porous N-carbon supported cobalt (oxide) thin films for highly efficient oxygen evolution.

Identification of efficient non-precious metal catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) remains a great challenge. Here we report robust cobalt (oxide) nanoparticles deposited on a porous nitrogen-doped carbon (N-carbon) film prepared by pulsed laser deposition under a reactive background gas, which exhibit highly efficient OER performance with a low overpotential and high stability.