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Published on: June 21, 2017
Highly Efficient and Stable Water-Oxidation Electrocatalysis with a Very Low Overpotential using FeNiP
Manman Qian1, Shengsheng Cui1, Daochuan Jiang1
1Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, CAS Key Laboratory of Materials for Energy Conversion, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, iChEM (Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials), University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), Jinzhai Rd, Hefei, 230026, P. R. China.
Novel iron-nickel-phosphide (FeNiP) nanoplate arrays demonstrate excellent performance as water-oxidation electrocatalysts. This earth-abundant catalyst offers a promising pathway for efficient water splitting and renewable energy generation.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Electrochemistry
- Renewable Energy
Background:
- Efficient water-oxidation electrocatalysts are crucial for renewable energy technologies like water splitting.
- Developing catalysts from inexpensive, earth-abundant materials is a key challenge.
Purpose of the Study:
- To synthesize and evaluate novel iron-nickel-phosphide (FeNiP) solid-solution nanoplate (FeNiP-NP) arrays as high-performance water-oxidation catalysts.
- To investigate the electrochemical properties and long-term stability of the FeNiP-NP catalyst.
Main Methods:
- Synthesis of FeNiP-NP arrays on a 3D nickel foam substrate.
- Electrochemical characterization including overpotential, current density, Tafel slope, and cyclic voltammetry (CV).
Main Results:
- The FeNiP-NP catalyst achieved a low overpotential of 180 mV at 10 mA cm-2 and an onset overpotential of 120 mV for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER).
- The catalyst exhibited a low Tafel slope of 76.0 mV dec-1, indicating efficient kinetics.
- Demonstrated excellent long-term stability with negligible activity loss after 1000 CV cycles.
Conclusions:
- The synthesized FeNiP-NP solid solution exhibits superior OER catalytic activity compared to previously reported non-noble metal catalysts.
- This FeNiP-NP catalyst represents a significant advancement in developing efficient and stable electrocatalysts for water splitting using earth-abundant materials.
