Amorphized core–shell NiFeMo electrode for efficient bifunctional water splitting

To effectively alleviate the realistic pressure of carbon emissions, electrocatalytic water splitting to produce hydrogen has broadened people's access to obtain clean energy. However, the development of low-cost, high-efficiency bifunctional electrode is a technical bottleneck to improve the overall water splitting performance. Based on the above problems, a bifunctional electrode material in which amorphous NiFeMo films assembled with the core–shell structure were in-situ grown on a conductive nickel foam substrate (NiFeMo/NF). Thanks to the synergistic effect multi-atoms containing Ni, Fe and Mo and abundant active sites brought by the amorphous structure, the resulted NiFeMo compounds displayed the overpotential of 215 mV and 180 mV for OER and HER at 10 mA cm−2, respectively. What's more, couple electrodes composed of NiFeMo/NF only requires the voltage of 1.62 V (vs. RHE) to gain 10 mA cm−2 in an overall water-splitting device and along with excellent stability for more than 100 h in alkaline medium. This work provides an idea to explore new generation of high-efficiency electrodes.