Complex nanostructures with distinct spatial architectures and more active sites hold broad prospects in new energy conversion fields. Herein, a facile strategy was carried out to construct triple-shelled Co-VSe x nanocages, starting with an ion-exchange process between Co-based zeolitic imidazolate framework-67 (ZIF-67) nanopolyhedrons and VO 3 − followed by the formation of triple-shelled Co-VSe x hollow nanocages during the process of increasing the solvothermal temperature under the assistance of SeO 3 2− . Meanwhile, triple-shelled Co-VS x and yolk−double shell Co-VO x nanocages were fabricated as references by a similar process. Benefiting from the larger surface areas and more electrolyte adsorption sites, the triple-shelled Co-VSe x nanocages exhibited excellent electrocatalytic performances when applied as the electrochemical catalysts for dyesensitized solar cells (DSSC) and hydrogen evolution reactions (HER). More concretely, the DSSC based on the Co-VSe x counter electrode showed outstanding power conversion efficiency of 9.68% when its Pt counterpart was 8.46%. Moreover, the Co-VSe x electrocatalyst exhibited prominent HER performance with a low onset overpotential of 40 mV and a small Tafel slope of 39.1 mV dec −1 in an acidic solution.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.