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NiO–CoFe2O4 electrocatalyst prepared on Ni foam by one-step hydrothermal method for efficient overall water splitting

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Abstract

The development of non-noble bifunctional electrocatalysts with low cost, high performance and stability for overall water splitting is particularly important for solving energy problems in future. In this paper, a micron spherical NiO–CoFe2O4 film composed of nanosheets was synthesized on Ni foam (NF) as a high-efficiency bifunctional electrode through one-pot hydrothermal method. The NiO–CoFe2O4/NF owns excellent hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity and stability due to the combination effect between NiO and CoFe2O4, good electrical conductivity of three-dimensional (3D) porous Ni foam and unique flower-spherical structure of NiO–CoFe2O4/NF. In alkaline solution, HER and OER only need low overpotential of 97 mV and 157 mV to reach 10 mA cm−2 current density, respectively. In addition, NiO–CoFe2O4 is used as both anode and cathode to overall water splitting in an alkaline electrolyte requires 1.54 V to realize a current density of 10 mA cm−2. The work provides an easy way for the preparation of bifunctional electrocatalysts for overall water splitting.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from Science Funds of Tianjin for Distinguished Young Scholar (No. 17JCJQJC44800), Key Research and Development Plan of Tianjin (No. 19YFSLQY00020) and the Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin (20JCYBJC00550).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin Chengjian University, Tianjin, 300384, China

    Xiaofeng Wang, Zhihua Liu, Zhengang Guo & Zhifeng Liu

  2. Tianjin Key Laboratory of Building Green Functional Materials, Tianjin, 300384, China

    Zhihua Liu, Zhengang Guo & Zhifeng Liu

  3. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of New Energy and Materials, China University of Petroleum Beijing, Beijing, 102249, China

    Lei Ge

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  1. Xiaofeng Wang
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Correspondence to Zhihua Liu.

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Wang, X., Liu, Z., Guo, Z. et al. NiO–CoFe2O4 electrocatalyst prepared on Ni foam by one-step hydrothermal method for efficient overall water splitting. J Mater Sci 56, 8575–8587 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-020-05763-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-020-05763-4

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