Electroless deposition synthesis of composite catalysts Ni-Fe-P-WO3/NF with superior oxygen evolution performance

Abstract

The proper construction of high efficiency, low-cost, earth-abundant oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalyst is essential for hydrogen formation by water splitting. A novel electrocatalyst with highly active OER performance was manufactured by a simple electroless deposition method of Ni-Fe-P-WO3 on nickel foam (NF). Benefiting from outstanding mass transfer capability of Ni-Fe-P-WO3/NF heterogeneous structure, abundance of active sites in the amorphous architecture and etc., the Ni-Fe-P-WO3/NF shows extremely superb electrocatalytic properties compare to noble metal catalyst IrO2/NF for OER, which needs an overpotential of only 218 mV in 1.0 M KOH solution to achieve the current density of 10 mA cm−2. It also has remarkable OER activity at high current density that only needs 298 mV to attain 100 mA cm−2 current density. Moreover, the Ni-Fe-P-WO3/NF has low Tafel slope of 42 mV dec−1. This study offers a novel approach to the production of OER multiphase electrocatalysts from oxides and alloys.