V2O3/FeOOH with rich heterogeneous interfaces on Ni foam for efficient oxygen evolution reaction

The development of efficient electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is indispensable to accelerate water splitting. Herein, a new V2O3/FeOOH@NF electrocatalyst was fabricated via a one-step hydrothermal strategy for the first time. Benefiting from the absence of binder or conductive agents during electrode fabrication, the increased number of active sites due to redistribution of electrons near the hetero-interfaces, as well as the cooperative effect between V2O3 and FeOOH, the optimized V2O3/FeOOH@NF-1 catalyst demonstrated excellent OER electrocatalytic properties. A low overpotential of 249 mV was achieved at 10 mA cm−2 and the Tafel slope was as low as 43.1 mV dec−1 in an alkaline solution. Meanwhile, the V2O3/FeOOH@NF-1 electrocatalyst presented outstanding long-term stability for OER maintained for 24 h at a current density of 25 mA cm−2 without significant attenuation. This work provided a novel and feasible strategy for the preparation of other multi-component composite electrocatalysts. [Display omitted] •A new V2O3/FeOOH@NF electrocatalyst is prepared by a simple one-step hydrothermal method.•V2O3/FeOOH@NF catalyst is synthesized for the first time.•V2O3/FeOOH@NF can be directly used as a working electrode.•The OER overpotential is 249 mV at 10 mA cm−2 with low Tafel slope (43.1 mV dec−1) .