Structural and Interfacial Engineering of Ni2P/Fe3O4 Porous Nanosheet Arrays for Efficient Oxygen Evolution Reaction

Rational design of transition-metal phosphide (TMPs)-based electrocatalysts can effectively promote oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Herein, the novel efficient Ni2P/Fe3O4 porous nanosheets arrays supported on Ni foam (Ni2P/Fe3O4/NF) as alkaline OER catalysts were synthesized using structural and interfacial engineering. The three-dimensional (3D) porous hierarchical structure of Ni2P/Fe3O4/NF provides abundant active sites for OER and facilitates the electrolyte diffusion of ions and O-2 liberation. Furthermore, the strong interfacial coupling and synergistic effect between Ni2P and Fe3O4 modify the electronic structure, resulting in the enhanced intrinsic activity. Consequently, the optimized Ni2P/Fe3O4/NF exhibits excellent OER performance with low overpotentials of 213 and 240 mV at 60 and 100 mA cm(-2) in 1.0 M KOH, respectively, better than the RuO2/NF and most Ni/Fe-based OER catalysts. Impressively, it can maintain its catalytic activity for at least 20 h at 60 mA cm(-2). In addition, the relationship between the structure and performance is fully elucidated by the experimental characterizations, indicating that the metal oxyhydroxides in situ generated on the surface of catalysts are responsible for the high OER activity.

Automated summary

Rational design of transition-metal phosphide (TMPs)-based electrocatalysts can effectively enhance the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The synthesized Ni2P/Fe3O4 porous nanosheets arrays exhibit abundant active sites and excellent OER performance, providing insights into improving energy conversion efficiency under alkaline conditions.