Preparation of 3D Fe-Co-Ni-OH/NiCoP electrode as a highly efficient electrocatalyst in the oxygen evolution reactions

Hydrogen production by water electrolysis is an established technology to develop green storing of solar energy. Designing non-precious metal catalysts with abundant active sites and long durability is a necessary requirement for the hydrogen production from electrolytic water. Herein, we successfully fabricated a novel, highly efficient and non-precious metal oxygen evolution nanocatalyst by dealloying and rapid corrosion method. The catalyst is based on a 3-dimensional NiCoP framework and the desired Fe-Co-Ni-OH material was grown in situ through rapid etching to form Fe-Co-Ni-OH/NiCoP composite electrode. Electrochemical tests showed that the composite exhibits excellent OER (oxygen evolution reaction) activity for the cor-rosion time of 1 min. At current densities higher than 180 mA/cm2, the OER performance was even com-parable to the catalytic activity of the noble metal catalyst RuO2. After 1000 cycles of stability tests, it still shows excellent OER stability. These findings provide a new insight to develop novel and highly efficient oxygen evolution catalysts.(c) 2022 Published by Elsevier B.V.