A strategy to improve electrochemical water oxidation of FeOOH by modulating the electronic structure

Abstract The good performance of base metal oxides as alternative electrocatalysts for water oxidation has attracted great attention. However, the formed Fe-O bonds are not conducive to the dissociation of water molecule, which thus inhibit oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Herein, a facial on-site activation strategy is proposed to improve the OER activity of FeOOH by P doping. By optimizing the electronic structure, the obtained electrode exhibits an overpotential of 203 and 263 mV at 10 and 100 mA cm−2, respectively. Systematic experiments and theoretical analysis suggest that P doping can optimize the adsorption energy of OER intermediates by forming P-O bonds. Therefore, it enables P-FeOOH as a low-cost and efficient electrocatalyst and provides a strategy for designing new highly active and cost-effective catalysts for OER.