Seamlessly Conductive 3D Nanoarchitecture of Core-Shell Ni-Co Nanowire Network for Highly Efficient Oxygen Evolution

Electrochemical splitting of water is an attractive way to produce hydrogen fuel as a clean and renewable energy source. However, a major challenge is to accelerate the sluggish kinetics of the anodic half-cell reaction where oxygen evolution reaction (OER) takes place. Here, a seamlessly conductive 3D architecture is reported with a carbon-shelled Ni-Co nanowire network as a highly efficient OER electrocatalyst. Highly porous and granular Ni-Co nanowires are first grown on a carbon fiber woven fabric utilizing a cost-effective hydrothermal method and then conductive carbon shell is coated on the Ni-Co nanowires via glucose carbonization and annealing processes. The conductive carbon layer surrounding the nanowires is introduced to provide a continuous pathway for facile electron transport throughout the whole of the integrated 3D catalyst. This 3D hierarchical structure provides several synergistic effects and beneficial functions including a large number of active sites, easy accessibility of water, fast electron transport, rapid release of oxygen gas, enhanced electrochemical durability, and stronger structural integrity, resulting in a remarkable OER activity that delivers an overpotential of 302 mV with a Tafel slope of 43.6 mV dec−1 at a current density of 10 mA cm−2 in an alkaline medium electrolyte (1 m KOH).