Hierarchical Fe-Mn binary metal oxide core-shell nano-polyhedron as a bifunctional electrocatalyst for efficient water splitting.

Electrochemical water splitting is convinced as one of the most promising solutions to combat energy crisis. The exploitation of efficient hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions (HER/OER) bifunctional electrocatalysts is undoubtedly vital spark yet challenging for imperative green sustainable energy. Herein, through introducing simple pH regulated redox reaction into a tractable hydrothermal procedure, a hierarchical Fe3O4@MnOx binary metal oxide core-shell nano-polyhedron was designed by evolving MnOx wrapped Fe3O4. The MnOx effectively prevents the agglomeration and surface oxidation of Fe3O4 nano-particle and increases the electrochemical active sites. Benefiting from the generous active sites and the synergistic effects of Fe3O4 and MnOx, the Fe3O4@MnOx-NF nanocomposite implements efficient HER/OER bifunctional electrocatalytic performance and overall water splitting. As a result, hierarchical Fe3O4@MnOx only requires a low HER/OER overpotential of 242/188 mV to deliver 10 mA/cm2, a small Tafel slope of 116.4/77.6 mV/dec, combining a long-term cyclability of 5 h. Impressively, by applying Fe3O4@MnOx as independent cathode and anode, a overall water splitting cell supplies a competitive voltage of 1.64 V to achieve 10 mA/cm2 and super long cyclability of 80 h. These results reveal that this material is a promising candidate for practical water electrolysis application.