Nitrogen-doped Fe₂O₃/NiTe₂ as an excellent bifunctional electrocatalyst for overall water splitting

The development of inexpensive, high efficiency electrocatalysts is a major challenge for electrolytic water to hydrogen production. Herein, an efficient porous nanoblock catalyst N-doped Fe₂O₃/NiTe₂ heterojunction for overall water splitting is reported. Notably, the obtained 3D self-supported catalysts exhibit good hydrogen evolution. reaction (HER) activity and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) properties in alkaline solution (only 70 mV and 253 mV of overpotential are needed to provide 10 mA cm^-2 current density, respectively). This is mainly due to the N-doped electronic structure optimized, the strong electronic interaction between Fe₂O₃ and NiTe₂ that facilitates rapid electron transfer, the porous structure which allows the catalyst to have large surface area for effective gas release, and their synergistic effect. When used as a dual function catalyst with overall water splitting, it achieved a current density of 10 mA cm^-2 under 1.54 V with good durability (at least 42 h). The present work provides a new methodology for the study of high-performance, low-cost, and corrosion-resistant bifunctional electrocatalysts.