Enhanced electrocatalytic activity of FeNi alloy quantum dot-decorated cobalt carbonate hydroxide nanosword arrays for effective overall water splitting

• Published in: Nanoscale Vol. 14; no. 8; pp. 3191 - 3199
• Main Authors: Zhao, Meiru, Du, Jia, Lei, Hao, Pei, Lingwei, Gong, Zhangquan, Wang, Xing, Bao, Haifeng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Royal Society of Chemistry 24.02.2022
• Subjects: Arrays; Cobalt; Current density; Electrocatalysts; Hydrogen production; Intermetallic compounds; Metal foams; Oxygen evolution reactions; Quantum dots; Synergistic effect; Water splitting
• ISSN: 2040-3364; 2040-3372
• DOI: 10.1039/d1nr08035k

The development of earth-abundant catalysts toward high-efficiency overall water splitting is of critical importance for electrochemical hydrogen production. Here, novel FeNi alloy quantum dot (QD)-decorated cobalt carbonate hydroxide (CoCH) nanosword arrays were successfully constructed on Ni foam (FeNi/CoCH/Ni foam) and used as an efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst for overall water splitting in alkaline media. Benefiting from the synergistic effect between the FeNi alloy QDs and CoCH, the FeNi/CoCH/Ni foam electrode delivers a current density of 20 mA cm −2 at an overpotential of 240 mV and a small Tafel slope of 44.8 mV dec −1 for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Further, it displays excellent performance for overall water splitting with a voltage of 1.49 V at 10 mA cm −2 and maintains its activity for at least 23 h. In particular, it only needs low cell voltages of 1.54 and 1.6 V to drive high current densities of 100 and 400 mA cm −2 , respectively, which is much better than commercial Pt/C/Ni foam|RuO 2 /Ni foam, providing great potential for large-scale application. A novel FeNi/CoCH/Ni foam nanosword array is successfully constructed as an efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst for overall water splitting in alkaline media.