Oxygen Vacancies Dominated NiS2/CoS2 Interface Porous Nanowires for Portable Zn-Air Batteries Driven Water Splitting Devices

The development of highly active and stable oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalysts is crucial for improving the efficiency of water splitting and metal-air battery devices. Herein, an efficient strategy is demonstrated for making the oxygen vacancies dominated cobalt-nickel sulfide interface porous nanowires (NiS2/CoS2-O NWs) for boosting OER catalysis through in situ electrochemical reaction of NiS2/CoS2 interface NWs. Because of the abundant oxygen vacancies and interface porous nanowires structure, they can catalyze the OER efficiently with a low overpotential of 235 mV at j = 10 mA cm(-2) and remarkable long-term stability in 1.0 m KOH. The home-made rechargeable portable Zn-air batteries by using NiS2/CoS2-O NWs as the air-cathode display a very high open-circuit voltage of 1.49 V, which can maintain for more than 30 h. Most importantly, a highly efficient self-driven water splitting device is designed with NiS2/CoS2-O NWs as both anode and cathode, powered by two-series-connected NiS2/CoS2-O NWs-based portable Zn-air batteries. The present work opens a new way for designing oxygen vacancies dominated interface nanowires as highly efficient multifunctional electrocatalysts for electrochemical reactions and renewable energy devices.