Dissolution-regrowth of hierarchical Fe-Dy oxide modulates the electronic structure of nickel-organic frameworks as highly active and stable water splitting electrocatalysts

As the kinetically sluggish oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is considered to be a bottleneck in overall water splitting, it is necessary to develop a highly active and stable electrocatalyst to overcome this issue. Herein, we successfully fabricated a three-dimensional iron-dysprosium oxide co-regulated in-situ formed MOF-Ni arrays on carbon cloth (FeDy@MOF-Ni/CC) through a facile two-step hydrothermal method. Electrochemical studies demonstrate that the designed FeDy@MOF-Ni/CC catalyst requires an overpotential of only 251 mV to reach 10 mA cm(-2) with a small Tafel slope of 52.1 mV dec(-1). Additionally, the stability declined by only 5.5% after 80 h of continuous testing in 1.0 M KOH. Furthermore, a cell voltage of only 1.57 V in the overall water splitting system is sufficient to achieve 10 mA cm(-2); this value is far better than that of most previously reported catalysts. The excellent catalytic performance originates from the unique 3D rhombus-like structure, as well as coupling synergies of Fe-Dy-Ni species. The combination of lanthanide and transition metal species in the synthesis strategy may open entirely new possibilities with promising potential in the design of highly active OER electrocatalysts. (c) 2020, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.