Electrochemical oxygen evolution reaction efficiently boosted by selective fluoridation of FeNi 3 alloy/oxide hybrid

Performance boosting of hybrid metal oxide and metal alloy catalyst is crucial to the water electrolysis for hydrogen generation. Herein, a novel concept of selective fluoridation of metal alloy/oxide hybrid is proposed to boost their catalytic performance for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). A well-recognized OER catalyst system of FeNi3 alloy/oxide embedded in nitrogen-doped porous nanofibers (FeNiO/NCF) is employed as a proof of concept, and it is selectively fluoridated by transforming the metal oxide to metal fluoride (FeNiF/NCF). The crystal structure and surface chemical state transformation are well supported by the spectroscopic analysis and the improved electrochemical performance for OER can be well correlated to the phase and structure change. Specifically, FeNiF/NCF can drive the benchmark current density of 10 mA cm−2 at 260 mV with a Tafel slope of 67 mV dec−1, about 70 mV less than that of FeNiO/NCF. Increased catalytic kinetics, rapid charge transfer ability, high catalytic efficiency and stability are also probed by electrochemical analysis. The high surface area and roughness are found mainly generated via the high-temperature annealing for the metal alloy/metal oxide formation, and the low-temperature fluoridation process intrinsically contributes to the active structure formation. It is an efficient and universal approach to increase the catalytic performance of metal alloy/oxide for energy-relevant catalytic reactions. © 2019