V2O3-Decorated Spinel CoFe2O4 with Carbon-Encapsulated Mesoporous Nanosheets for Efficient Water Splitting

A lot of research has been going on to develop efficient nonprecious bifunctional catalysts for electrochemical water splitting. Here, we synthesize a V2O3-decorated spinel CoFe2O4 catalyst self-supported on nickel foam (NF) with a carbon-encapsulated mesoporous nanosheet structure [(V2O3-CoFe2O4)@C/NF] through a hydrothermal method and high-temperature annealing. It exhibits lower overpotentials for hydrogen evolution reaction (61 and 301 mV) and oxygen evolution reaction (226 and 310 mV) at +/- 10 and +/- 500 mA cm(-2) and can hold at +/- 500 mA cm(-2) for 80 h. As for overall water splitting, it needs 1.53 V to produce 10 mA cm(-2) and maintains 80 h at 100 mA cm(-2), suggesting good stability. This high performance originated from the V2O3-decorated spinel CoFe2O4, carbon-encapsulated structure and the self-supported mesoporous nanosheets. Therefore, this work provides a convenient, green, and promising method to design non-noble, low-cost, and high-efficient catalysts for water splitting.

Automated summary

Efficient nonprecious bifunctional catalysts have been developed for electrochemical water splitting, with a V2O3-decorated spinel CoFe2O4 catalyst showing lower overpotentials and good stability.