A Flexible Electrode Based on Iron Phosphide Nanotubes for Overall Water Splitting

• Main Authors: Yan, Ya, Xia, Bao Yu, Ge, Xiaoming, Liu, Zhaolin, Fisher, Adrian, Wang, Xin
• Other Authors: School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: Electrocatalysis; Hydrogen evolution reaction
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/84890; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/43603
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The design of cheap and efficient water splitting systems for sustainable hydrogen production has attracted increasing attention. A flexible electrode, based on carbon cloth substrate and iron phosphide nanotubes coated with an iron oxide/phosphate layer, is shown to catalyze overall water splitting. The as-prepared flexible electrode demonstrates remarkable electrocatalytic activity for both the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) at modest overpotentials. The surface iron oxide/phosphate, which is formed in situ, is proposed to improve the HER activity by facilitating the water-dissociation step and serves directly as the catalytically-active component for the OER process.