Construction of NiCo2S4/Fe2O3 hybrid nanostructure as a highly efficient electrocatalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction

Electrocatalytic water splitting is a promising process as it can effectively convert renewable electricity to chemical energy such as hydrogen gas. However, the energy conversion efficiency of water splitting process is fundamentally dependent on the catalytic activity of selected electrocatalyst . In particular, one of the main reasons that hinder the practical application of water splitting system is the sluggish kinetics of oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Hence, earth-abundant elements-based catalysts with excellent OER catalytic performance is significantly important. Herein, MOF-derived NiCo 2 S 4 /Fe 2 O 3 hybrid nanostructure grown on carbon cloth (NiCo 2 S 4 /Fe 2 O 3 @CC) was successfully fabricated as OER catalyst. Benefiting from the merits of unique architecture with hybrid heterostructure grown on carbon cloth, high porosity and abundant active sites , the designed NiCo 2 S 4 /Fe 2 O 3 @CC demonstrated superior electrocatalytic performance toward the OER. The fabricated NiCo 2 S 4 /Fe 2 O 3 @CC catalyst exhibited very low overpotential of 190 mV to achieve a current density of 10 mA cm −2 and a small Tafel slope of 45 mV dec −1 . Furthermore, the as-fabricated catalyst demostrated remarkable stability. The present work provides an effective method to fabricate novel metal sulfide and metal oxide hybrids for OER catalysis.