Electroless plating-acid etching strategy to synthesize Co–Fe–Mn–P nanosheet arrays bifunctional catalyst for efficient water splitting

Simple and efficient preparation of highly active electrocatalysts is of great significance for water splitting. Herein, Co–Fe–Mn–P/NF electrode was prepared on a nickel foam through electroless plating-acid etching strategy, which showed excellent bifunctional catalytic activity for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in 1 M KOH. For HER, only 13 and 78 mV overpotentials are needed to reach current densities of 10 and 100 mA cm −2 with Tafel slopes as low as 33.7 mV dec −1 . While for OER, the Co–Fe–Mn–P/NF required small overpotentials of 275 and 327 mV to reach the current densities of 10 and 100 mA cm −2 , and the Tafel slope is only 34.8 mV dec −1 . In addition, Co–Fe–Mn–P/NF only needs 1.562 V to drive water splitting to produce a current density of 10 mA cm −2 . Furthermore, it also demonstrated excellent stability by maintaining stable operation for more than 24 h.