Bifunctional electrocatalysts of CoFeP/rGO heterostructure for water splitting

Abstract

Bifunctional non-precious electrocatalysts with high performance are highly desired for renewable energy but remain challenging. Herein, a CoFeP/rGO heterostructure was rational developed based on the synergistic effect, including superior conductivity, increased catalytic active sites of rGO support and the regulated electron distribution of bimetallic phosphide. At a current of 10 mA cm−2, the CoFeP/rGO-2 composite exhibits excellent HER activity with low overpotentials of 101 mV and 76 mV in 1.0 M KOH and 0.5 M H2SO4 electrolyte, respectively. And highly active alkaline OER performance was provided with an overpotential of only 275 mV to reach a current density of 10 mA cm−2. By the way, the CoFeP/rGO-2 electrode showed a pleasured working voltage of 1.58 V for overall water splitting in alkaline environment. More importantly, the long term durability and higher stability of the catalysts demonstrated their feasibility of bimetallic phosphide/rGO system as bifunctional electrocatalysts.