Rapid screening of NixFe1−x/Fe2O3/Ni(OH)2 complexes with excellent oxygen evolution reaction activity and durability by a two-step electrodeposition method

NiFe-based oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalysts, as a typical non-precious material on water splitting, has attracted more attention because of their high OER performance and high reserves. But in terms of large-scale production and application, the “manufacturing costs” and “controllability” of NiFe-based catalysts are still the barrier of them. Here we demonstrate how the cationic (Fe3+/Ni2+) concentration of precursor solution-terminated NixFe1−x/Fe2O3/Ni(OH)2 complexes dictates the durability and activity of the OER via an electrodeposition method. The results indicated that the OER performance and manufacturing costs can be optimized easily with this industrialized method. Specifically, the optimized Ni0.6Fe0.4/Fe2O3/Ni(OH)2 complex (NFO-0.6) showed the best OER performance of 218 mV overpotential, 122 mV·dec−1 Tafel slop, 12 h long-term operation with ∼ 38% activity loss. The activity evolution tread suggests that the novel stability of NFO-0.6 is probably induced by the surface oxides and the metallic NixFe1−x transforming during long-term operation(NixFe1−x → Fe2O3/Ni(OH)2). Our work thus demonstrates the tunability of NFO-x activity and durability by controlling the cationic (Fe3+/Ni2+) concentration of precursor showing enormous potential to promote the practical application in water splitting.