Active-site-enriched dendritic crystal Co/Fe-doped NiS electrocatalysts for efficient oxygen evolution reaction

• Published in: Dalton transactions : an international journal of inorganic chemistry 2023-06, Vol.52 (25), p.8747-8755
• Main Authors: Cui, Yanan, Zhang, Chenxu, Li, Yaxin, Du, Zhengyan, Wang, Chong, Yu, Shansheng, Tian, Hongwei, Zheng, Weitao
• Format: Article
• ISSN: 1477-9226; 1477-9234
• DOI: 10.1039/d3dt01071f

The electrochemical decomposition of water plays a critical role in green and sustainable energy. However, the development of efficient and low-cost non-noble metal catalysts to overcome the high potential of the anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is still challenging. In this work, electrocatalysts with high OER activity were obtained by doping Co/Fe bimetals into Ni 3 S 2 (CF-NS) via a simple single-step hydrothermal method by adjusting the doping ratio of bimetals. A series of characterization studies revealed that the introduction of a Co/Fe co-dopant increased the number of active sites and improved the electroconductibility, while optimizing the electronic structure of Ni 3 S 2 . Meanwhile, Fe-induced high valence Ni contributed to the production of an OER active phase NiOOH. The unique dendritic crystal morphology facilitated the disclosure of the active sites and the expansion of mass transfer channels. The optimized sample required a low overpotential of 146 mV to obtain a current density of 10 mA cm −2 in 1.0 M KOH solution. The optimized sample also operated stably for at least 86 h. In sum, the proposed method looks very promising for designing efficient, stable, and low-cost non-precious metal catalysts with high conductivity and multiple active sites, useful for future synthesis of transition metal sulfide catalysts. Co 5 Fe 5 -Ni 3 S 2 is an efficient electrocatalyst for the OER due to its increased proportion of high-valent metals and its unique dendritic morphology.