Abstract
The design of inexpensive bifunctional electrocatalysts with excellent catalytic activity is crucial for the cost reduction from water splitting. As a kind of biomass with hollow tubular structure, Metaplexis japonica fluff is expected to be a natural substrate for the growth of nanostructured electrocatalysts. Herein, nanowire-like NiCo precursors are grown on Metaplexis japonica fluff biomass substrates by hydrothermal method, which are then converted into carbon microtube supported NiCoP-NiS2 composites (NiCoP-NiS2/CMT) by low-temperature phosphorization and sulfidation treatment. As expected, the biomass substrate provides a guiding role for the growth of NiCoP-NiS2 nanowires, which is conducive to expose more active areas and promote charge transfer during the reaction. As a result, the obtained NiCoP-NiS2/CMT exhibits good electrocatalytic performance for both hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in 1 M KOH, which only requires overpotentials of 134 and 308 mV at 10 mA cm−2, respectively. In addition, the constructed symmetric water splitting device exhibits a cell voltage of 1.62 V at 10 mA cm−2, and it also displays good stability during the 24 h test.
Published Version
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