In consideration of application prospect of non-noble metallic materials
catalysts, the study of exploring more highly effective electrocatalysts has
been focused on by researchers. Herein, a novel strategy is employed to
construct a heterojunction consisting of metal phosphide Ni
xFe
yP
and layered double hydroxide (LDH) with graphene oxide (GO) as conductive
support. By adjusting the molar ratio of Ni to Fe, a series of heterojunctions
with mixed valence state Fe
δ+/Fe
3+ and Ni
δ+/Ni
2+ (
δ is likely close to 0) redox couples are
achieved and strong synergistic effects towards overall water splitting
performance are found. The optimized catalyst with a Ni/Fe molar ratio of
0.72:0.33, namely Ni
0.7Fe
0.3P/LDH/GO, delivers ultra-low
overpotentials for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution
reaction (OER) of 79 and 198 mV at the current density of 10 mA·cm
-2,
respectively. Furthermore, for overall water-splitting practical application,
it only requires 1.526 V at 10 mA·cm
-2 with robust stability, which
is superior to most reported electrocatalysts. Experimental results demonstrate
the improved electronic conductivity, enlarged electrochemically active area
and accelerated kinetics together account for the enhanced performance. This
work supplies new prospects for the promotion and application of such
heterojunction electrocatalysts in overall water splitting.