Electrolyte modification method induced atomic arrangement in FeOx/NF nanosheets for efficient overall water splitting

Xiaoping Zhang; Xiaonan Fu; Weifeng Tian; Yanzhi Bai; Liya Zhu; Junwen Si

doi:10.1039/d3nr02859c

Electrolyte modification method induced atomic arrangement in FeO_x/NF nanosheets for efficient overall water splitting

Nanoscale. 2023 Sep 29;15(37):15328-15333. doi: 10.1039/d3nr02859c.

Authors

Xiaoping Zhang^{1

2}, Xiaonan Fu^{1

2}, Weifeng Tian^{1

2}, Yanzhi Bai^{1

2}, Liya Zhu³, Junwen Si¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Sciences, Henan University of Technology, Zhengzhou 450001, China. zhangxiaoping@haut.edu.cn.
² Institute of Physical Properties for Quantum Functional Materials, School of Sciences, Henan University of Technology, Zhengzhou 450001, China.
³ School of Electrical and Information Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China. myzhuliya@163.com.

PMID: 37694717
DOI: 10.1039/d3nr02859c

Abstract

To explore transition metal-based electrocatalysts with remarkable energy storage and conversion performance, the rational design and synthesis of electrodes with rich active sites and favorable electrical conductivity are crucial. Herein, using fluoroethylene carbonate (FEC) additive in electrochemical conversion reaction (electrolyte modification method) is proposed as an effective strategy to enhance the catalytic activity of FeO_x/NF. The optimal sample FeO_x/NF-Li-FEC₁ shows optimized HER activity with remarkably low overpotential of 222 mV at a current density of 200 mA cm^-2. By employing FeO_x/NF-Li-FEC₁ as bifunctional electrocatalysts, the overall water-splitting device reaches a current density of 10 mA cm^-2 at a low cell voltage of 1.56 V. The outstanding performance is mainly attributed to the atomic arrangement to offer rich active sites as well as the evolved electronic structure and the thin SEI layer to accelerate charge transfer process. This study opens up a novel avenue to rationally design and synthesize low-cost and high-performance electrode materials for electrochemical energy conversion and storage devices.