Interface Coordination Engineering of P-Fe₃O₄/Fe@C Derived from an Iron-Based Metal Organic Framework for pH-Universal Water Splitting

Abstract

Developing electrocatalysts with high energy conversion efficiency is urgently needed. In this work, P-Fe3O4/Fe@C electrodes with rich under-coordinated Fe atom interfaces are constructed for efficient pH-universal water splitting. The introduction of under-coordinated Fe atoms into the P-Fe3O4/Fe@C interface can increase the local charge density and polarize the 3d orbital lone electrons, which promotes water adsorption and activation to release more H*, thus elevating electrocatalytic activity. As a donor-like catalyst, P-Fe3O4/Fe@C displays excellent electrocatalytic performance with overpotentials of 160 mV and 214 mV in acidic and alkaline electrolytes at 10 mA cm−2, in addition to pH-universal long-term stability.

Keywords

• interface coordination engineering
• donor-like catalyst
• under-coordinated atoms
• water splitting