Preparation of 3D Fe-Co-Ni-OH/NiCoP electrode as a highly efficient electrocatalyst in the oxygen evolution reactions

Hydrogen production by water electrolysis is an established technology to develop green storing of solar energy. Designing non-precious metal catalysts with abundant active sites and long durability is a necessary requirement for the hydrogen production from electrolytic water. Herein, we successfully fabricated a novel, highly efficient and non-precious metal oxygen evolution nanocatalyst by dealloying and rapid corrosion method. The catalyst is based on a 3-dimensional NiCoP framework and the desired Fe-Co-Ni-OH material was grown in situ through rapid etching to form Fe-Co-Ni-OH/NiCoP composite electrode. Electrochemical tests showed that the composite exhibits excellent OER (oxygen evolution reaction) activity for the corrosion time of 1 min. At current densities higher than 180 mA/cm2, the OER performance was even comparable to the catalytic activity of the noble metal catalyst RuO2. After 1000 cycles of stability tests, it still shows excellent OER stability. These findings provide a new insight to develop novel and highly efficient oxygen evolution catalysts.