Synthesis of FeNi-based heterostructure on a nickel foam at room temperature for efficient catalyzing hydrogen evolution reaction

Abstract

The FeNi-based heterostructure was synthesized on a nickel foam by a simple dip-coating method with zero-energy consumption at room temperature. The obtained heterostructure is flower-like and has high-performance for electrocatalyzing the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). On the FeNi-based heterostructure, the overpotential was only 228 mV at a current density of 100 mA cm−2 in 1 M KOH, and can maintain 10 h stability with chronoamperometry test. The outstanding catalytic activity was attributed to the unique structure with a large electrochemical active surface area and the synergistic effect between different transition metal elements. This research afforded a new way to design low-cost and high-performance HER electrocatalyst.