Fe/Ni dual-doping and phosphorylation engineered CoFeP-Ni toward high-performance water electrolysis

CoFeP-Ni nanorods provide a large electrochemical active surface area. • CoFeP-Ni only need 55 mV for HER and 180 mV for OER to reach 10 mA cm −2 • CoFeP-Ni needs 1.443 V to acquire 10 mA cm −2 for overall water splitting. • CoFeP-Ni exhibits outstanding stability and durability for both HER and OER. The engineering of robust, inexpensive bifunctional non-precious electrocatalysts exhibiting both high efficiency and operational stability is essential for scalable water splitting systems toward sustainable energy conversion. This study developed Fe and Ni co-doped CoFeP-Ni nanorods through a hydrothermal phosphidation approach. The as-synthesized CoFeP-Ni nanorods demonstrate exceptional bifunctional electrocatalytic performance, achieving remarkably low overpotentials of merely 55 mV for HER and 180 mV for OER at 10 mA cm −2 , along with exhibiting outstanding prolonged stability. The CoFeP-Ni catalyst demonstrates superior water-splitting performance in a two-electrode system, achieving industrially relevant current densities (10/100 mA cm −2 ) at competitively lower voltages (1.443/1.692 V), eclipsing the Pt/C||RuO 2 benchmark and existing non-noble metal catalysts. This study provides fundamental insights into bifunctional catalysts while offering a new strategy for developing stable, efficient, and economical first-row transition metal electrocatalysts based on transition metals.