Nix Co3-x O4 Nanoneedle Arrays Grown on Ni Foam as an Efficient Bifunctional Electrocatalyst for Full Water Splitting.

Abstract

Developing highly active, stable and robust electrocatalysts based on earth-abundant elements for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is important for many renewable energy conversion processes. Herein, Nix Co3-x O4 nanoneedle arrays grown on 3D porous nickel foam (NF) was synthesized as a bifunctional electrocatalyst with OER and HER activity for full water splitting. Benefiting from the advantageous structure, the composite exhibits superior OER activity with an overpotential of 320 mV achieving the current density of 10 mA cm-2 . An exceptional HER activity is also acquired with an overpotential of 170 mV at the current density of 10 mA cm-2 . Furthermore, the catalyst also shows the superior activity and stability for 20 h when used in the overall water splitting cell. Thus, the hierarchical 3D structure composed of the 1D nanoneedle structure in Nix Co3-x O4 /NF represents an avenue to design and develop highly active and bifunctional electrocatalysts for promising energy conversion.