FeS2/C nanowires as an effective catalyst for oxygen evolution reaction by electrolyticwater splitting

Abstract

Electrolytic water splitting with evolution of both hydrogen (HER) and oxygen (OER) is an attractive way to produce clean energy hydrogen. It is critical to explore effective, but low-cost electrocatalysts for the evolution of oxygen (OER) owing to its sluggish kinetics for practical applications. Fe-based catalysts have advantages over Ni- and Co-based materials because of low costs, abundance of raw materials, and environmental issues. However, their inefficiency as OER catalysts has caused them to receive little attention. Herein, the FeS2/C catalyst with porous nanostructure was synthesized with rational design via the in situ electrochemical activation method, which serves as a good catalytic reaction in the OER process. The FeS2/C catalyst delivers overpotential values of only 291 mV and 338 mV current densities of 10 mA/cm2 and 50 mA/cm2, respectively, after electrochemical activation, and exhibits staying power for 15 h.