Reinforced interfacial coupling effect of NiO/Ni 2 P by Fe doping for boosting water splitting.

Nickel-based catalysts are suitable for water splitting to generate hydrogen. However, the low conductivity and weak stability have always been urgent issues to be addressed in nickel-based catalysts. Fe-doped nickel oxide/nickel phosphide (Fe-NiO/Ni ₂ P) was prepared as a bifunctional electrocatalyst by doping metal and constructing heterogeneous interface. The introduction of Fe contributed to the reinforced interfacial coupling effect of NiO/Ni ₂ P to promote charge transfer and accelerate reaction kinetics. The heterojunction regulated the interfacial charge density between NiO and Ni ₂ P to improve the electronic environment of Ni ²⁺ and enhance conductivity. The O-Fe-P bond at the heterogeneous interface induced the directional transfer of electrons and ensured the structure stability. The synergistic effect of Fe doping and heterogeneous interface increased the adsorption energy of *O and coordinated the adsorption energy of *H, advancing the catalytic performance. Fe-NiO/Ni ₂ P exhibited the overpotential of 242 mV and 141 mV at 10 mA cm ^-2 for oxygen and hydrogen evolution, respectively.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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