Developing efficient
and earth-abundant electrocatalysts for electrochemical water splitting
is greatly desired due to growing energy demands. Herein, we develop
a promising hierarchical nickel–iron–copper nitride
electrode that is fabricated via a three-step process, starting with
a hydrothermal synthesis of nickel–iron hydroxide on nickel
foam and followed by the direct growth of copper metal–organic
frameworks and, finally, low temperature ammonization. This approach
yields a material that is an efficient catalyst for both the oxygen
evolution reaction and the hydrogen evolution reaction. The as-fabricated
heterostructured nickel–iron–copper nitride electrode
exhibits an excellent activity with an overpotential of only 121 mV
for the oxygen evolution reaction and an even a lower overpotential
of 33 mV for the hydrogen evolution reaction. Additionally, this structure
displays strong long-term stability with only a negligible increase
in potential after 500 cycles of uninterrupted cyclic voltammetry
testing. To the best of our knowledge, this as-prepared hierarchical
nickel–iron–copper nitride is one of the most promising
alternatives for the electrochemical oxygen and hydrogen evolution
reactions.
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