Fe3+–Co2+ species loaded on carbon as an effective pre-catalyst for oxygen evolution

Abstract

Exploring a low-cost and high-performance oxygen evolution catalyst for water splitting to produce clean energy hydrogen is a hot topic. In this study, a simple physical adsorption strategy was used to prepare pre-catalysts of Fe³⁺–Co²⁺ species on carbon for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The optimized precatalyst shows an excellent electrocatalytic performance, delivering a current density of 10 mA cm⁻² at a low overpotential of 295 mV with a small Tafel slope of 61.3 mV dec⁻¹ in 1 M KOH. This study proposes the design of efficient oxygen evolution catalysts by a typical physical adsorption route.