Spinel oxide CoFe2O4 grown on Ni foam as an efficient electrocatalyst for oxygen evolution reaction

Abstract

The effect of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is important in water splitting. In this work, we develop sphere-like morphology spinel oxide CoFe2O4/NF by hydrothermal reaction and calcination, and the diameter of the spheres is about 111.1 nm. The CoFe2O4/NF catalyst exhibits excellent electrocatalytic performance with an overpotential of 273 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm-2 and a Tafel slope of 78 mV dec-1. The cycling stability of CoFe2O4/NF is remarkable, and it only increased by 5 mV at a current density of 100 mA cm-2 after 3000 cycles. Therefore, this simple method to prepare CoFe2O4/NF can enhance the OER properties of electrocatalysts, which makes CoFe2O4/NF a promising material to replace noble metal-based catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction.