Promoting electrocatalytic overall water splitting by sulfur incorporation into CoFe-(oxy)hydroxide

Abstract

The design and fabrication of highly cost-effective electrocatalysts with high activity, and stability to enhance the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) has been considered to be one of the most promising approaches toward overall water splitting. In this study, sulfur-incorporated cobalt–iron (oxy)hydroxide (S-(Co,Fe)OOH) nanosheets were directly grown on commercial iron foam via galvanic corrosion and hydrothermal methods. The incorporation of sulfur into (Co,Fe)OOH results in superior catalytic performance and high stability in both the HER and OER conducted in 1 M KOH. The incorporation of sulfur enhanced the electrocatalytic activity by modifying the electronic structure and chemical states of (Co,Fe)OOH. An alkaline water electrolyzer for overall water splitting was fabricated using a two-electrode configuration utilizing the S-(Co,Fe)OOH bifunctional electrocatalyst in both the HER and OER. The fabricated electrolyzer outperformed a precious metal-based electrolyzer using Pt/C as the HER electrocatalyst and IrO₂ as the OER electrocatalyst, which are the benchmark catalysts. This electrolyzer provides a lower potential of 1.641 V at 10 mA cm⁻² and maintains 98.4% of its performance after 50 h of durability testing. In addition, the S-(Co,Fe)OOH-based electrolyzer successfully generated hydrogen under natural illumination upon its combination with a commercial silicon solar cell and exhibited a solar to hydrogen (STH) efficiency of up to 13.0%. This study shows that S-(Co,Fe)OOH is a promising candidate for application in the future renewable energy industry due to its high cost-effectiveness, activity, and stability during overall water splitting. In addition, the combination of a commercial silicon solar cell with an alkaline water electrolyzer has great potential for the production of hydrogen.