rGO wrapped trimetallic sulfide nanowires as an efficient bifunctional catalyst for electrocatalytic oxygen evolution and photocatalytic organic degradation

Abstract

Herein, we present a novel metal–organic framework (MOF)-derived Janus-type nanoarchitecture, constructed with reduced graphene oxide (rGO) wrapped trimetallic sulfide nanowires (Ni-Co-Fe-S/rGO). The Ni-Co-Fe-S/rGO possesses ultrafast electron transfer and ion diffusion, benefiting from its unique morphology of one-dimensional (1D) sulfide nanowires wrapped into two-dimensional (2D) rGO nanosheets. Furthermore, the charge re-balancing after electron transfer among Ni, Co and Fe in the unit system leads to the overlap of the electron cloud and the change of band structures. Consequently, it delivers excellent oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performances with a low Tafel slope of 56.4 mV dec⁻¹, an overpotential of 251 mV@10 mA cm⁻² and excellent stability over 36 h. Moreover, it shows a high photocatalytic degradation (POD) efficiency of 96.06% for rhodamine B dye with excellent cyclic degradation stability. This work presents a novel approach for the controllable synthesis of low-cost bifunctional catalysts with boosted OER and POD performances.