Cobalt and vanadium co-doped FeOOH nanoribbons: an iron-rich electrocatalyst for efficient water oxidation

Exploring non-noble metal catalysts with low-cost and excellent performance for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is of great importance for energy conversion technologies. Fe is the second most abundant metal on the earth and is cheaper than Co or Ni, but Fe-rich catalysts still suffer from poor catalytic activity toward the OER. Herein, a novel Fe-rich nanoribbon catalyst ((Co,V)-FeOOH) was prepared by a primary battery powered strategy. (Co,V)-FeOOH shows ultralow overpotentials of 230 and 322 mV at current densities of 10 and 500 mA cm−2 in 1 M KOH, respectively. Systematic experiments and DFT calculations are performed to prove that the doped Co and V elements can synergistically optimize the electronic structure and free energy for adsorbed intermediates of FeOOH, thus leading to an enhanced OER activity of (Co,V)-FeOOH nanoribbons. This work shows that the low-cost Fe-rich OER catalyst prepared by an effective and economic method can be highly efficient and provides a possibility for the design of advanced OER electrocatalysts.