Constructing nickel–iron oxyhydroxides integrated with iron oxides by microorganism corrosion for oxygen evolution

Abstract

Developing facile approaches for preparing efficient electrocatalysts is of significance to promote sustainable energy technologies. Here, we report a facile iron-oxidizing bacteria corrosion approach to construct a composite electrocatalyst of nickel–iron oxyhydroxides combined with iron oxides. The obtained electrocatalyst shows improved electrocatalytic activity and stability for oxygen evolution, with an overpotential of ∼230 mV to afford the current density of 10 mA cm−2. The incorporation of iron oxides produced by iron-oxidizing bacteria corrosion optimizes the electronic structure of nickel–iron oxyhydroxide electrodes, which accounts for the decreased free energy of oxygenate generation and the improvement of OER activity. This work demonstrates a natural bacterial corrosion approach for the facile preparation of efficient electrodes for water oxidation, which may provide interesting insights in the multidisciplinary integration of innovative nanomaterials and emerging energy technologies.