Efficient Electrolytic Water Splitting with FeCoPt Trimetallic Cubic Nanocatalysts

Abstract

Abstract Electrocatalytic water splitting to hydrogen energy provides an environmental, cost-effective, and sustainable approach to address worldwide energy and carbon emission challenges. Here we report a facile method for preparing trimetallic cubic nanoparticles for electrolytic overall water splitting by galvanic replacement of FeCo alloys with Pt salt solution. The as-synthesized FeCoPt trimetallic nanocatalysts demonstrated excellent activity and stability for both hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalytic performance in 1.0 mol L-1 KOH. The FeCoPt-2 sample afforded a current density of 10 mA cm-2 at a low overpotential of 178 mV for HER and 305 mV for OER. The present study provides a facile and cost-effective synthetic process to prepare trimetallic FeCoPt nanocatalysts as high-performance electrocatalysts for overall water splitting.