Zirconium-Regulation-Induced Bifunctionality in 3D Cobalt-Iron Oxide Nanosheets for Overall Water Splitting

The design of high-efficiency non-noble bifunctional electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is paramount for water splitting technologies and associated renewable energy systems. Spinel-structured oxides with rich redox properties can serve as alternative low-cost OER electrocatalysts but with poor HER performance. Here, zirconium regulation in 3D CoFe2O4 (CoFeZr oxides) nanosheets on nickel foam, as a novel strategy inducing bifunctionality toward OER and HER for overall water splitting, is reported. It is found that the incorporation of Zr into CoFe2O4 can tune the nanosheet morphology and electronic structure around the Co and Fe sites for optimizing adsorption energies, thus effectively enhancing the intrinsic activity of active sites. The as-synthesized 3D CoFeZr oxide nanosheet exhibits high OER activity with small overpotential, low Tafel slope, and good stability. Moreover, it shows unprecedented HER activity with a small overpotential of 104 mV at 10 mA cm(-2) in alkaline media, which is better than ever reported counterparts. When employing the CoFeZr oxides nanosheets as both anode and cathode catalysts for overall water splitting, a current density of 10 mA cm(-2) is achieved at the cell voltage of 1.63 V in 1.0 m KOH.