High-Entropy FeCoMnCuNi diselenide Self-Standing Electrode with Outstanding Water-Electrolysis Performance in Alkaline Medium

Abstract

Developing non-noble metal efficient electrocatalysts with high activity and stability is extremely essential for the hydrogen generation by water electrolysis with low cost. Herein, we report a novel binder-free high-entropy self-standing electrode with unique three-dimensional structure and petunia-, needle- and fork-like morphology prepared by the hydrothermal and selenizing methods. Due to high-entropy, lattice distortion and high-curvature tip-enhancement effects, electrochemical tests demonstrated that the prepared FeCoMnCuNiSe2 with an ultralow overpotential of 71.6 mV at 100 mA cm-2 exhibited superior activity for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in 1.0 M KOH solution, far outperforming almost all reported advanced non-noble metal HER catalysts. More impressively, the assembled FeCoMnCuNiSe2||FeCoMnCuNiSe2 overall-water splitting device with more than 45 h continuous operation stability at 10, 20 and 50 mA cm-2 in 1.0 M KOH required a remarkably low cell voltage of 1.30 V at 10 mA cm-2 as well, demonstrating a promising practical application prospect in future water electrolysis.