Synergic effect of Fe-doping and Ni3S2/MnS heterointerface to boost efficient oxygen evolution reaction

The high overpotential of oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is the main limitation of electrolytic water splitting efficiency for hydrogen production . Herein, Fe doped Ni 3 S 2 /MnS heterostructured nanosheets were grown on Ni foam (Fe-Ni 3 S 2 /MnS@NF) via a simple one-step solvothermal reaction. As-synthesized Fe-Ni 3 S 2 /MnS@NF exhibits excellent OER electrocatalytic activity in 1 M KOH, with an extremely low overpotential of 259 mV at 50 mA cm −2 as well as a small Tafel slope (39 mV dec −1 ), much better than Ni 3 S 2 -, Fe-doped Ni 3 S 2 -, and Ni 3 S 2 /MnS- nanosheets grown on NF. Results clearly reveal that the better electrocatalytic performance of Fe-Ni 3 S 2 /MnS@NF than its rivals is mainly due to the synergistic effect of Fe-doping and Ni 3 S 2 /MnS heterojunctions. In details, heterojunction combination with Fe-doping not only improves the conductivity of catalysts but also modulates the electronic configuration of active sites and optimizes the adsorption capacity of oxygen-containing intermediates, thus achieving rapid reaction kinetics and high electrocatalytic performance. This work provides insights into the synergistic regulation of electrocatalytic activity of non-noble catalysts toward high efficiency energy conversion.