Sea urchin-like Fe doped Ni₃S₂ catalyst growing on nickel foam is simply prepared via surface Fe activation and post sulfidation. The high-vertically dispersive of nanoneedles and Fe dopants contributes the excellent OER performance by improving the reaction kinetics and the intrinsic catalytic properties.

Abstract

Electrochemical water-splitting to produce hydrogen is potential to substitute the traditional industrial coal gasification, but the oxygen evolution kinetics at the anode remains sluggish. In this paper, sea urchin-like Fe doped Ni₃S₂ catalyst growing on nickel foam (NF) substrate is constructed via a simple two-step strategy, including surface iron activation and post sulfuration process. The NF-Fe-Ni₃S₂ obtains at temperature of 130 °C (NF-Fe-Ni₃S₂-130) features nanoneedle-like arrays which are vertically grown on the particles to form sea urchin-like morphology, features high electrochemical surface area. As oxygen evolution catalyst, NF-Fe-Ni₃S₂-130 exhibits excellent oxygen evolution activities, fast reaction kinetics, and superior reaction stability. The excellent OER performance of sea urchin-like NF-Fe-Ni₃S₂-130 is mainly ascribed to the high-vertically dispersive of nanoneedles and the existing Fe dopants, which obviously improved the reaction kinetics and the intrinsic catalytic properties. The simple preparation strategy is conducive to establish high-electrochemical-interface catalysts, which shows great potential in renewable energy conversion.