Novel FeNi-FeCo-C composite nanofibers: Highly efficient electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution from water splitting

The development of a facile strategy to fabricate inexpensive and efficient nonnoble metal-based alloys to replace their traditionally costly noble-metal counterparts for electrocatalytic water splitting holds great appeal. Here, we report novel FeNi-FeCo-C composite nanofibers (FeNi-FeCo-C CNFs), which was prepared simply by electrospinning a precursor solution containing Fe, Ni and Co nitrates together with polyacrylonitrile powders and subsequent thermal treatment. The optimal FeNi-FeCo-C CNFs prepared with 10 wt% polyacrylonitrile at a thermal treatment temperature of 800 °C show excellent electrocatalytic performance for oxygen evolution in a 1 mol·L−1 KOH aqueous solution with a relatively small overpotential of 262 mV at 10 mA cm−2, a low Tafel slope of 47.2 mV dec−1, and excellent cycling stability. The present strategy will provide new insight for the design and fabrication of electrocatalysts for water splitting.