Electrochemical water splitting is an important process to produce hydrogen and oxygen for energy storage and conversion devices. However, it is often restricted by the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) due to its sluggish kinetics. To overcome the problem, precious metal oxide-based electrocatalysts, such as RuO and IrO, are widely used. The lack of availability and the high cost of precious metals compel researchers to find other resources for the development of cost-effective, environmentally friendly, earth-abundant, nonprecious electrocatalysts for OER. Such catalysts should have high OER performance and good stability in comparison to those of available commercial precious metal-based electrocatalysts. Herein, we report an inexpensive fabrication of bimetallic iron-nickel nanoparticles on FeNi-foil (FeNi@FeNi-foil) as an integrated OER electrode using a one-step calcination process. FeNi@FeNi-foil obtained at 900 °C shows superior OER activity in alkaline solution with an overpotential as low as 283 mV to achieve a current density of 10 mA cm and a small Tafel slope of 53 mV dec. The high performance and durability of the as-prepared nonprecious metal electrode even exceeds those of the available commercial RuO and IrO catalysts, showing great potential in replacing the expensive noble metal-based electrocatalysts for OER.

A novel PB-MoO3−x NC has been developed by fabrication of molybdenum oxide within the framework of PB, to perform highly efficient synergistic PTT/PDT treatment under a single continuous NIR wave laser.

Inspired by the cascade reactions occurring in micro-organelles of living systems, we have developed a hybrid hydrogel, a nanozyme that mimics three key enzymes including peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, and catalase. The organic/inorganic nanostructured hydrogel constituting VO x incorporated hexacyanoferrate Berlin green analogue complex (VO x BG) is prepared by a simple one-step hydrothermal process, and its composition, structure, and properties are thoroughly investigated. Polyvinylpyrrolidone, a low-cost and biocompatible polymer, was utilized as a scaffold to increase the surface area and dispersion of the highly active catalytic centers of the nanozyme. Compared to the widely used horseradish peroxidase in enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, our VO x BG analogue hydrogel displays an excellent affinity toward the chromogenic substrate that is used in these peroxidase-based assays. This higher affinity makes it a competent nanozyme for detection and oxidation of biomolecules, including glucose, in a cascade-like system which can be further used for hydrogel photolithography. The VO x BG analogue hydrogel also holds a good ability for the rapid and efficient oxidative degradation of environmentally unfriendly recalcitrant substrates under light irradiation. Detailed mechanistic studies of this multifaceted material suggest that different complex catalytic processes and routes are involved in these photo-Fenton and Fenton reactions that are responsible for the generation as well as consumption of reactive oxygen species, which are effectively activated by a multienzyme mimetic of the VO x BG analogue hydrogel.