Single-Step Synthesis of Fe-Doped Ni3S2/FeS2 Nanocomposites for Highly Efficient Oxygen Evolution Reaction.

Abstract

Due to the sluggish kinetic reaction, the electrolytic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is one of the obstacles in driving overall water splitting for green hydrogen production. In this study, we demonstrate a strategy to improve the OER performance of Ni3S2. The effect of addition of different FeCl2 contents during the hydrothermal process on the OER activity is systematically evaluated. We found that all samples upon the addition of FeCl2 produced Fe-doped Ni3S2 and FeS2 to form a nanocomposite. Their OER performances strongly depend on the amount of FeCl2, where the NSF-0.25 catalyst with 0.25 mmol FeCl2 added during the hydrothermal synthesis shows the best OER performance. Its overpotential was 230 mV versus RHE and it achieves a high current density of 100 mA·cm-2, which was much lower than that of pristine Ni3S2 (320 mV) or RuO2 (370 mV) as the benchmark OER catalyst. The postcharacterizations reveal that NSF-0.25 has gone through an in situ phase transformation into an Fe-NiOOH phase during the OER test. This study presents a simple method and a low-cost material to improve the OER performance with in situ formation of oxyhydroxide.