NiCo2O4@Ni2P nanorods grown on nickel nanorod arrays as a bifunctional catalyst for efficient overall water splitting

The development of efficient and durable non-noble metal catalysts remains a challenge in electrocatalytic water splitting applications. To address this, a bifunctional catalyst involving hierarchical NiCo2O4@Ni2P nanorods grown on nickel nanorod arrays (NiCo2O4@Ni2P/NAs) was designed and fabricated in this study for overall water splitting that provided high activity and acceptable stability. And if used as the cathode and anode in alkaline media, the NiCo2O4@Ni2P/NAs only required 1.58 V to achieve a current density of 10 mA cm−2, which is superior to most reported catalysts and can be attributed to a unique core-shell structure and coexisting crystalline/amorphous Ni2P phases.