Mesoporous Nanostructured Composite Derived from Thermal Treatment CoFe Prussian Blue Analogue Cages and Electrodeposited NiCo-S as an Efficient Electrocatalyst for an Oxygen Evolution Reaction

Abstract

Developing effective and priceless electrocatalysts is an indispensable requirement for advancing the efficiency of water splitting to get clean and sustainable fuels. Herein, we reported a feasible strategy for preparing a trimetallic (NiCoFe) superior electrocatalyst with a novel open-cage/3D frame-like structure for an oxygen evolution reaction (OER). It is prepared by consequent thermal treatments of a CoFe Prussian blue analogue frame/cage-like structure under an argon (CoFeA-TT) atmosphere and then electrochemical deposition of nickel-cobalt sulfide nanosheets as a shell layer on it. The electrochemical measurements demonstrated that the deposition of NiCo-S on CoFeA-TT (NiCo-S@CoFeA-TT) has the best catalytic performance and can drive the benchmark current density of 10 mA cm–2 at a low overpotential of 268 mV with a Tafel slope of 62 mV dec–1 and an excellent long-term catalytic stability in an alkaline medium. Its outstanding electrocatalytic performances are endowed from frame/cage-like structures, highly exposed active sites, accelerated mass and electron transport, and the synergistic effect of multiple hybrid components. The NiCo-S@CoFeA-TT showed a better performance than most advanced nonprecious catalysts and the noble commercial RuO2 catalyst. This study exhibited an effective and efficient procedure to design 3D porous architecture catalysts for the energy-relevant electrocatalysis reaction.

Spherical Ni3S2/Fe‐NiPx Magic Cube with Ultrahigh Water/Seawater Oxidation Efficiency

“…[15,16] Prussian blue analogues (PBAs), as representative coordination polymer materials, are mainly composed of metal ions centers and cyanide ligand with a general formula of A x B[M(CN) 6 ]•nH 2 O (A: alkali metal, Li, Na, K; B and M: transition metal, Ni, Fe, Co, Zn, Mn, etc). [17][18][19] The diversity of transition metal ions enables PBAs to possess adjustable metal active sites, accompanied by their inherent characteristic open-framework structures, and their derived materials (alloys, [20] transition metal oxides, [21] chalcogenides, [22,23] phosphides, [24] etc.) exhibit uniform active sites and large specific surface areas, which have also been widely applied to electrocatalytic water splitting.…”

Three-Dimensional Ordered Macroporous NiFe2O4 Self-Supporting Electrode with Enhanced Mass Transport for High-Efficiency Oxygen Evolution Reaction

“…As an alternative to noble metal catalysts, transition-metal-based catalysts have attracted considerable interest as oxygen evolution catalysts in recent years in virtue of their abundance and excellent intrinsic electrochemical activity. , Thus, a number of earth-abundant transition-metal sulfides, − nitrides, , phosphides, , oxides, − and hydroxides − have been explored as materials for OER. In particular, nickel–iron spinel (NiFe 2 O 4 ) has attracted much attention as an OER electrocatalyst owing to its excellent catalytic activity and corrosion-resistant nature .…”

Electrodeposition of Defect‐Rich Ternary NiCoFe Layered Double Hydroxides: Fine Modulation of Co3+ for Highly Efficient Oxygen Evolution Reaction

“…[27] The Ni(Co 0.5 Fe 0.5 )/NF electrode exhibited excellent electrocatalytic performance with low overpotential and Tafel slope for OER, which was superior to the recently reported Ni-, Co-, Fe-based OER electrocatalysts in alkaline media (Figure 2f). [11,[28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41] To further investigate the reasons for different OER performance, the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis was performed to determine the valence state of each metal element in different Ni(Co 0.5 Fe 0.5 ) LDHs. The Ni, Co, Fe and O elements were detected in the XPS survey spectra of Ni-(Co 0.5 Fe 0.5 ) LDHs (Figure S10).…”