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

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.