A Flexible Electrode Based on Iron Phosphide Nanotubes for Overall Water Splitting

Ya Yan; Bao Yu Xia; Xiaoming Ge; Zhaolin Liu; Adrian Fisher; Xin Wang

doi:10.1002/chem.201503777

A Flexible Electrode Based on Iron Phosphide Nanotubes for Overall Water Splitting

Chemistry. 2015 Dec 7;21(50):18062-7. doi: 10.1002/chem.201503777. Epub 2015 Oct 23.

Authors

Ya Yan¹, Bao Yu Xia¹, Xiaoming Ge², Zhaolin Liu², Adrian Fisher³, Xin Wang⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798 (Singapore).
² Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), Agency of Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR), 3 Research Link, Singapore 117602 (Singapore).
³ Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge, New Museums Site, Pembroke Street, Cambridge, CB2 3RA (UK).
⁴ School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798 (Singapore). WangXin@ntu.edu.sg.

PMID: 26493157
DOI: 10.1002/chem.201503777

Abstract

The design of cheap and efficient water splitting systems for sustainable hydrogen production has attracted increasing attention. A flexible electrode, based on carbon cloth substrate and iron phosphide nanotubes coated with an iron oxide/phosphate layer, is shown to catalyze overall water splitting. The as-prepared flexible electrode demonstrates remarkable electrocatalytic activity for both the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) at modest overpotentials. The surface iron oxide/phosphate, which is formed in situ, is proposed to improve the HER activity by facilitating the water-dissociation step and serves directly as the catalytically-active component for the OER process.

Keywords: electrocatalysis; hydrogen evolution reaction; nanostructures; phosphides; water splitting.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't