Activating the Oxygen Evolution Performance of NiCuFe by Phosphorus Doping

The oxygen evolution reaction (OER), a critical yet kinetically sluggish process in electrochemical water splitting, severely limits efficient hydrogen production. Herein, a simple one-step dynamic hydrogen bubble templated electrodeposition technique is used to prepare a self-supported 3D porous NiCuFeP catalyst with outstanding OER performance. In 1.0 M KOH solution, the optimized catalyst demonstrates a low overpotential of 236 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm^-2, a small Tafel slope value of 48.2 mV dec^-1, and significant stability over a period of 100 h at a current density of 50 mA cm^-2. The reaction mechanism for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is elucidated further through density functional theory (DFT) calculations, providing atomic-level insights that explain the enhanced catalytic performance. In addition to developing a high-performance 3D porous OER electrocatalyst, this work suggests a general design approach for effective OER catalysts.