Abstract
Exploring highly efficient and low cost bifunctional electrocatalysts for overall water splitting is of primary importance for renewable energy storage. Here, a novel amorphous CoFeOx(OH)y/CoOx(OH)y nanosphere (CFOH/COH) with unique core/shell structure was produced through a simple one-step solvothermal reaction, which exhibited enhanced activity for both oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) across the water splitting process. Benefited from the unique core/shell character, the amorphous structure as well as the amorphous interface, the active sites of CFOH/COH were well optimized, thus finally leading to the activity enhancement. The CFOH/COH-1 catalyst (with the Co/Fe ratio of about 1) displayed the best performance among the tested catalysts, exhibiting the overpotentials of 0.324 V and 0.263 V to achieve the current density of 10 mA cm−2 for OER and HER in 1.0 M KOH solution, respectively, smaller than those of pure Fe- or Co-based amorphous catalysts. Furthermore, the CFOH/COH-1 exhibited robust catalytic activity with a voltage of 1.59 V to reach a current density of 10 mA cm−2, when adopted as the bifunctional catalyst for full water splitting. This work highlights the important role of amorphous transition metal based heterostructure for boosting the HER and OER performance.
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