Electrodeposited nickel–iron–carbon–molybdenum film as efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst for overall water splitting in alkaline solution

Designing and synthesizing of efficient and inexpensive bifunctional electrocatalysts for both hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is one of the current research topics. In this study, Ni Fe C Mo film in nickel mesh substrate is prepared by one-step direct-current electrodeposition method. The obtained Ni Fe C Mo film shows the excellent electrocatalytic activity , which only requires overpotentials of 254 mV for HER and 256 mV for OER to drive current density of 10 mA cm −2 , with corresponding Tafel slopes of 163.9 and 60.3 mV·dec −1 in 30% KOH medium, respectively. Moreover, Ni Fe C Mo film only needs a low cell voltage of 1.61 V to drive current density of 10 mA cm −2 in an alkaline electrolyzer . Such remarkably HER and OER properties of Ni Fe C Mo alloy is attributed to the increased effective electrochemically active surface area and the synergy effect among Ni, Fe, C and Mo.