Graphene/MoS2/FeCoNi(OH)x and Graphene/MoS2/FeCoNiPx multilayer-stacked vertical nanosheets on carbon fibers for highly efficient overall water splitting

• Published in: Nature communications 2021-03, Vol.12 (1), p.1380-1380, Article 1380
• Main Authors: Ji, Xixi, Lin, Yanhong, Zeng, Jie, Ren, Zhonghua, Lin, Zijia, Mu, Yongbiao, Qiu, Yejun, Yu, Jie
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 140/133; 140/146; 147/135; 147/143; 639/301/299; 639/638/298; 639/925/357; Alkaline water; Carbon; Carbon fibers; Carbon neutrality; Catalysts; Composite materials; Electrocatalysts; Electrolysis; Electronic structure; Fibers; Graphene; Humanities and Social Sciences; Hybrid structures; Hydrogen-based energy; Hydroxides; Molybdenum disulfide; multidisciplinary; Multilayers; Nanosheets; Oxygen evolution reactions; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Splitting; Water splitting
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-21742-y

Development of excellent and cheap electrocatalysts for water electrolysis is of great significance for application of hydrogen energy. Here, we show a highly efficient and stable oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalyst with multilayer-stacked hybrid structure, in which vertical graphene nanosheets (VGSs), MoS 2 nanosheets, and layered FeCoNi hydroxides (FeCoNi(OH) x ) are successively grown on carbon fibers (CF/VGSs/MoS 2 /FeCoNi(OH) x ). The catalyst exhibits excellent OER performance with a low overpotential of 225 and 241 mV to attain 500 and 1000 mA cm −2 and small Tafel slope of 29.2 mV dec −1 . Theoretical calculation indicates that compositing of FeCoNi(OH) x with MoS 2 could generate favorable electronic structure and decrease the OER overpotential, promoting the electrocatalytic activity. An alkaline water electrolyzer is established using CF/VGSs/MoS 2 /FeCoNi(OH) x anode for overall water splitting, which generates a current density of 100 mA cm −2 at 1.59 V with excellent stability over 100 h. Our highly efficient catalysts have great prospect for water electrolysis. While water-splitting electrocatalysis offers a renewable means for carbon-neutral energy production, it is a challenge to design efficient, active, and stable catalysts. Here, authors prepare multilayer composite nanosheet materials as bifunctional water-splitting electrocatalysts.