Salt-flower-shaped FeP–CoP catalyst for highly efficient bifunctional hydrogen and oxygen evolution

Abstract

Developing efficient, stable, and cost-effective electrocatalysts is essential for advancing sustainable water splitting and renewable energy technologies. Here, we report the design of a novel salt-flower-shaped FeP–CoP catalyst, leveraging its unique morphology and synergistic composition for enhanced bifunctional electrocatalysis. The catalyst showed outstanding performance in both hydrogen evolution (HER) and oxygen evolution reactions (OER), achieving low overpotentials of 105 mV and 320 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm⁻² for HER and OER, respectively, with Tafel slopes of 106.73 and 93.27 mV dec⁻¹. The exceptional catalytic performance is attributed to the optimized phosphorization process, which enhances active site density, and the synergistic interaction between FeP and CoP, facilitating efficient charge transfer. This study highlights the potential of low-cost, earth-abundant metal-based catalysts for sustainable hydrogen and oxygen production, paving the way for scalable water-splitting technologies.