Rational construction of free-standing P-doped Fe2O3 nanowire arrays as highly effective electrocatalyst for overall water splitting

RSC Adv. 2021 Jan 4;11(3):1233-1240. doi: 10.1039/d0ra08586c.

Abstract

Designing electrode structures with high activity is very significant for energy conversion systems. However, single electrode materials often exhibit poor electronic transportation. To address this issue, we prepared P-Fe2O3 nanowire arrays through a convenient hydrothermal and phosphation method. The as-obtained electrode materials exhibited excellent electrocatalytic performance, which could be attributed to the P element decoration improving the reaction active sites. The as-obtained P-Fe2O3-0.45 nanowire arrays exhibited excellent OER activity with a low overpotential of 270 mV at 10 mA cm-2 (72.1 mV dec-1), excellent HER performance with a low overpotential of 126.4 mV at -10 mA cm-2, a small Tafel slope of 72.5 mV dec-1 and long durability. At the same time, the P-Fe2O3-0.45 nanowire arrays possessed a low cell voltage of 1.56 V at 10 mA cm-2.