Synergistic effect of surface reconstruction and rGO for FeS2/rGO electrocatalysis with efficient oxygen evolution reaction for water splitting

Abstract

Exploring highly active and inexpensive electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution is vital but challenging. Herein, a serial of FeS2, FeS and FeS2/rGO electrocatalysts were obtained by simple two-step method. Benefiting from the integration of FeS2 and rGO, the FeS2-450/rGO-10% exhibited the excellent catalytic activity toward OER with an ultra-low overpotential of 140 mV, a smaller Tafel slope of 71 mV/dec and high stability. The improved catalytic performance for OER could attribute to the excellent synergistic effect of the surface reconstruction of FeS2 and the introduction of rGO in FeS2-450/rGO-10% catalyst. Meanwhile, in a two-electrode system of FeS2-450/rGO-10%/NF//Pt/C/NF toward overall water splitting, the voltage at 10 mA cm−2 is only 1.52 mV, which indicates that the FeS2-450/rGO-10% can serve as the anode in practical overall water splitting.

Keywords

• Iron sulfide
• Self reconstruction
• Electron transfer channel
• Water splitting
• Synergistic effect