High-performance Fe-Co-P alloy catalysts by electroless deposition for overall water splitting

At present, it is difficult for electrocatalytic electrode materials with high-Performance to be prepared at low cost and large area under mild conditions. Therefore, we adopt a facile electroless plating method to deposit the Fe-Co-P alloys on the nickel foam (NF) with different areas of 1 cm(2), 4 cm(2), 8 cm(2) and 16 cm(2). The Fe-Co-P/NF catalysts exhibit extraordinary catalytic activity for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in alkaline media and are comparable to the state-of-the-art IrO2 in 1.0 M KOH, capable of yielding a current density of 10 mA cm(-2) at an overpotential of only 250 mV. Furthermore, the Fe-Co-P/NF catalysts show efficient activity towards the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) with an overpotential of 163 mV at j = 10 mA cm(-2) as well. Remarkably, when used as both the anode and cathode, a low potential of 1.68 V (vs. RHE) is required to reach the current density of j = 10 mA cm(-2), making the Fe-Co-P/NF alloys as an active bifunctional electrocatalyst for overall water splitting. The Fe-Co-P/NF alloy catalysts with high catalytic activity, facile preparation and low cost would provide a new pathway for the design and large-scale application of high-performance bifunctional catalysts for electrochemical water splitting. (C) 2018 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.