In situ growth of minimal Ir-incorporated CoxNi1-xO nanowire arrays on Ni foam with improved electrocatalytic activity for overall water splitting

Exploration of cost-effective electrocatalysts for boosting the overall water-splitting efficiency is vitally important for obtaining renewable fuels such as hydrogen.Here,earth-abundant CoxNi1-xO nanowire arrays were used as a structural framework to dilute Ir incorporation for fabricating electrocatalysts for water splitting.Minimal Ir-incorporated CoxNi1-xO nanowire arrays were synthesized through the facile hydrothermal method with subsequent calcination by using Ni foam(NF)as both the substrate and source of Ni.The electrocatalytic water-splitting performance was found to crucially depend on the Ir content of the parent CoxNi1-xO nanowire arrays.As a result,for a minimal Ir content,as low as 0.57 wt%,the obtained Ir-CoxNi1-xO/NF electrodes exhibited optimal catalytic activity in terms of a low overpotential of 260 mV for the oxygen evolution reaction and 53 mV for the hydrogen evolution reaction at 10 mA cm?2 in 1 mol L–1 KOH.When used as bifunctional electrodes in water splitting,the current density of 10 mA cm–2 was obtained at a low cell voltage of 1.55 V.Density functional theory calculations revealed that the Ir-doped CoxNi1-xO arrays exhibited enhanced electrical conductivity and low Gibbs free energy,which contributed to the improved electrocatalytic activity.The present study presents a new strategy for the development of transition metal oxide electrocatalysts with low levels of Ir incorporation for efficient water splitting.