Recent advances in iron-based sulfides electrocatalysts for oxygen and hydrogen evolution reaction

Abstract

Increasing environmental pollution and shortage of conventional fossil fuels have made it urgent to develop renewable and clean energy sources. Electrocatalytic water splitting, with its abundant raw materials, simple process, and zero carbon emission, is considered one of the most promising processes for producing carbon-neutral hydrogen which has excellent energy conversion efficiency and high gravimetric energy density. Among them, oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalysts and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalysts are critical to decreasing the intrinsic reaction energy barrier and boosting the hydrogen evolution efficiency. Therefore, it is imperative to develop and design low-cost, highly active, and stable OER and HER electrocatalysts to lower the overpotential and drive the electrocatalytic reactions. Transition metal sulfides, especially iron-based sulfides, have attracted extensive exploration by researchers as a result of its high abundance in the Earth's crust and near-metallic conductivity. Consequently, in this review, we systematically and comprehensively summarize the progress in the application of iron-based sulfides and their composites as OER and HER electrocatalysts in electrocatalysis. Detailed descriptions and illustrations of the special relationships among their composition, structure, and electrocatalytic performance are presented. Finally, this review points out the challenges and future prospects of iron-based sulfides in practical applications for designing and fabricating more promising iron-based sulfide OER and HER electrocatalysts. We believe that iron-based sulfide materials will have a wide range of application prospects as OER and HER electrocatalysts in the future.