Binary nickel–iron nitride nanoarrays as bifunctional electrocatalysts for overall water splitting

Abstract

Electrochemical water splitting provides a facile method for high-purity hydrogen production, but electro-catalysts with a stable bifunctional activity towards both oxygen and hydrogen evolution have been rarely developed. Herein we report a Fe₂Ni₂N material with a vertically aligned nanoplate array architecture as a bifunctional catalyst for overall water splitting in an alkaline environment. This advanced catalyst affords small onset overpotentials and fast current density increase, resulting in an excellent water splitting performance (requiring 1.65 V for achieving 10 mA cm⁻²), superior to the combination of benchmark noble metal catalysts.