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Preparation of Fe–Co–P–Gr/NF Coating via Electroless Composite Plating as Efficient Electrocatalysts for Overall Water Splitting

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Abstract

The development of electrocatalysts with high activity and low Tafel slope for overall water splitting has become a crucial challenge to exploit the sustainable energy. Herein, we construct a Fe–Co–P–Gr catalyst on nickel foam (NF) support through electroless composite plating to realize the co-deposition of Fe–Co–P alloys and graphene quantum dots. Interestingly, graphene quantum dots exhibit obvious effects on electron mobility and active sites of Fe–Co–P–Gr/NF catalyst. In oxygen evolution reaction, the Fe–Co–P–Gr/NF catalyst exhibits a small overpotential of 230 mV at 10 mA cm−2 and fast kinetics with Tafel slope of 37.8 mV dec−1. Meanwhile, the Fe–Co–P–Gr/NF also has a superior hydrogen evolution reaction performance in 1.0 M KOH. Compared with the Fe–Co–P alloys, the Fe–Co–P–Gr/NF both as the anode and cathode require only 1.58 V to reach a current density of 10 mA cm−2. The successful preparation of Fe–Co–P–Gr/NF electrode through electroless composite deposition provides a new path to manufacture electrocatalysts for overall water splitting.

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Acknowledgements

This work is financially supported by the Taishan Scholar Program of Shandong (ts201712046) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51672145).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, No. 53 Zhengzhou Road, Qingdao, 266042, China

    Kaihang Wang, Kaili Sun, Zihan Li, Zunhang Lv, Tianpeng Yu, Xin Liu, Guixue Wang, Guangwen Xie & Luhua Jiang

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  1. Kaihang Wang
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Wang, K., Sun, K., Li, Z. et al. Preparation of Fe–Co–P–Gr/NF Coating via Electroless Composite Plating as Efficient Electrocatalysts for Overall Water Splitting. Electron. Mater. Lett. 16, 164–173 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13391-019-00197-w

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