Porous needle-like Fe-Ni-P doped with Ru as efficient electrocatalyst for hydrogen generation powered by sustainable energies

Electrocatalytic water electrolysis, involving hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER), two half-reactions, is an eco-friendly approach toward hydrogen production. In this work, needle-like Ru-Fe-Ni-P on NiFe foam is prepared through corrosive engineering and following a low-temperature phosphorization procedure for overall water-splitting. The as-designed Ru-Fe-Ni-P exhibits a porous needle-like structure, surface, and binder-free merits, and then can expose rich active sites, favor the transportation of mass/electron, and accelerate the reaction kinetics during catalytic process. Then, the synthesized Ru-Fe-Ni-P owns remarkable catalytic performance for HER, with 18 and 67 mV to reach 10 mA·cm−2 in alkaline and neutral media. Moreover, a low cell voltage of 1.51 V is required to produce a current of 10 mA·cm−2 in a two electrode electrolyzer with excellent stability. Interestingly, sustainable energies can power the electrolyzer effectively with abundant hydrogen generation.