Fe-Doped NiSe Porous Nanosheets as Bifunctional Electrocatalysts for Efficient Overall Water Splitting

Abstract

It is urgent and meaningful to seek a facile method to design alternative electrocatalysts for effective overall water splitting. In this work, a facile one-step chemical bath deposition technique is employed to synthesize Fe-doped NiSe porous nanosheets on the Ni foam substrate (Fe–NiSe@NF). The synthesized Fe–NiSe@NF catalyst merely requires an overpotential of 195 and 110 mV to achieve 10 mA cm–2 and maintain stability for 35 h for OER and HER, respectively. When the Fe–NiSe@NF is simultaneously used as an anode and cathode, the current density reaches 10 mA cm–2 at a low cell voltage of 1.52 V under alkaline conditions. The outstanding water splitting performances of the Fe–NiSe@NF catalyst are attributed to the large electrochemical activity area of porous nanosheets, active phases generated on catalyst surfaces, and bimetallic synergistic effects. This work is beneficial for the exploitation of reliable and effective electrocatalysts to promote overall water splitting.