A trimetallic V-Co-Fe oxide nanoparticle as an efficient and stable electrocatalyst for oxygen evolution reaction

Hydrogen (H-2) generated from water splitting is deemed as the ideal replacement for conventional sources of energy. Catalysts play a valuable role in water splitting, especially the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Here, we report a Fe-doped Co3V2O8 nanoparticle catalyst (iron-rich V-Co-Fe), which possesses outstanding OER catalytic activity with eta(j) = 10 mA cm(-2) = 307 mV, and a low Tafel slope of 36 mV dec(-1), benefiting from a large degree of amorphization, a rich porous structure and a high specific surface area (about 232.1 m(2) g (-1)). More remarkably, the catalytic performance of the V-Co-Fe catalyst is markedly superior to commercial ruthenium oxide. In addition, the durability of the V-Co-Fe catalyst is fine. The current density collapses by less than 3 percent at 1.55 V vs. RHE after 11 h in comparison to the initial value. Moreover, this work reveals that the V-Co-Fe catalyst displays an excellent performance in both OER catalytic activity and stability, and may have the potential to be the ideal substitute for noble metal-based catalysts for water splitting to obtain affordable clean energy.