Fe-Incorporated Ni/MoO2 Hollow Heterostructure Nanorod Arrays for High-Efficiency Overall Water Splitting in Alkaline and Seawater Media

Developing high-efficiency and cost-effective bifunctional catalysts for water electrolysis is fascinating but still remains challenging. Thus, diverse strategies have been utilized to boost the activity toward oxygen/hydrogen evolution reactions (OER/HER) for water splitting. Among them, composition and structure engineering as an effective strategy has received extensive attention. Here, by means of a self-sacrificing template strategy and simultaneous regulation of the composition and structure, Fe-incorporated Ni/MoO2 heterostructural (NiFe/Fe-MoO2) hollow nanorod arrays are designed and constructed. Benefiting from abundant catalytic active sites, high intrinsic activity, and fast reaction kinetics, NiFe/Fe-MoO2 exhibits superior OER (eta(20) = 213 and 219 mV) and Pt-like HER activity (eta(10) = 34 and 38 mV), respectively, in 1 m KOH and alkaline seawater media. This results in attractive prospects in alkaline water and seawater electrolysis with only voltages of 1.48 and 1.51 V, and 1.69 and 1.73 V to achieve current densities of 10 and 100 mA cm(-2), respectively, superior to the Pt/C and RuO2 pair as a benchmark. Undoubtedly, this work provides a beneficial approach to the design and construction of noble-metal-free bifunctional catalysts toward efficient hydrogen production from alkaline water and seawater electrolysis.

Automated summary

By employing a self-sacrificing template strategy and regulating the composition and structure simultaneously, Fe-incorporated Ni/MoO2 heterostructural (NiFe/Fe-MoO2) hollow nanorod arrays are designed and constructed, showing superior activity in oxygen and hydrogen evolution reactions. This catalyst exhibits high performance in alkaline water and seawater electrolysis, surpassing Pt/C and RuO2.