NiFeP Microsphere Electrocatalyst for High-Efficiency Electrolysis of Water

Abstract

Electrochemical water splitting is a viable solution for producing clean energy sources. However, the sluggish reaction kinetics and high overpotential restrict their further application in large-scale hydrogen generation. In this work, we prepared NiFeP catalysts by a hydrothermal reaction and phosphorization treatment and studied the effect of the reaction temperature on the morphology and properties of the samples. The prepared NiFeP-140 samples possess a specific surface area of 25.13 m2g−1, which provides many active sites for the electrochemical reaction. They show an overpotential of 93 mV at 10 mA cm−2 for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and 233 mV @ 50 mA cm−2 for oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Also, the samples show Tafel slopes of 79.24 mV dec−1 (HER) and 80.73 mV dec−1 (OER). This facile strategy can be extended to prepare other transition-metal electrocatalysts.