Fabrication of excellent bifunctional electrocatalyst FeNi-LDH@L-NiCoP using ZIF as a sacrifice template for alkaline electrolysis of water

The key to generating hydrogen by electrolysis of water is to design the low-cost and high-catalytic activity catalyst. In this paper, FeNi-Layered Double Hydroxide@L-NCP/nickel foam (FeNi-LDH@L-NCP/NF) is prepared using leaf-like zeolitic imidazolate framework (L-Co-ZIF) as the precursor, phosphating to produce NiCoP (denoted as L-NCP) and then growing FeNi layered double hydroxide (FeNi-LDH) through a hydrothermal crystallization method. FeNi-LDH@L-NCP/NF is an exceptional catalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) as well as oxygen evolution reaction (OER). It shows the low overpotential of FeNi-LDH@L-NCP/NF and the values are 106 and 220 mV at 10 mA·cm^-2 in 1 M KOH for HER and OER, respectively. This is because the more ordered L-NCP is formed due to the role of the ZIF templates, which favors rapid charge transfer between the electrolyte and the electrode, thereby promoting its catalytic performance. The synergistic effect of FeNi-LDH and L-NCP also contributes to activity.