Electrodeposition of Ni - Fe on graphite rod as an efficient and binder-free electrocatalyst for oxygen and hydrogen evolution reactions

In this paper, nickel-iron (Ni-Fe) on a graphite substrate was electrodeposited as an effective electrocatalyst for hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions using the cyclic voltammetry method for the first time. Some important factors such as the range of applied potential, scan rate, and the number of cycles were optimized. In addition, the used substrate is a graphite rod, which is cheap, stable, and has good electrical conductivity. The main results show that the improved Ni-Fe coating on graphite rod has promising hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity, which exhibits small over voltages of − 191.2, − 394.0, and − 687.3 mV at the current densities of − 10, − 100, and − 400 mA. cm−2, respectively. Furthermore, the synthesized Ni-Fe electrocatalyst only needs 284 mV overpotentials to operate at a current density of 10 mA. cm−2, indicating its great performance for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). This paper offers a method for generating a bifunctional, binder-free, affordable, and fast water splitting electrocatalyst that has excellent performance.