Hydrogen‐Rich Pyrolysis from Ni‐Fe Heterometallic Schiff Base Centrosymmetric Cluster Facilitates NiFe Alloy for Efficient OER Electrocatalysts

Abstract

AbstractBinary metal nickel‐iron alloys have been proven to have great potential in oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalysis, but there are still certain challenges in how to construct more efficient nickel‐iron alloy electrocatalysts and maximize their own advantages. In this work, a heterometallic nickel‐iron cluster (L = C64H66Fe4N8Ni2O19) of Schiff base (LH3 = 2‐amino‐1,3‐propanediol salicylaldehyde) is designed as a precursor to explore its behavior in the pyrolysis process under inert atmosphere. The combination of TG‐MS, morphology, and X‐ray characterization techniques shows that the Schiff base ligands in the heterometallic clusters produces a strong reductive atmosphere during pyrolysis, which enable the two 3d metals Ni and Fe to form NiFe alloys. Moreover, Fe2O3/Fe0.64Ni0.36@Cs carbon nanomaterials are formed, in which Fe2O3/Fe0.64Ni0.36 is the potential active material for OER. It is also found that the centrosymmetric structure of the heterometallic Schiff base precursor is potentially related to the formation of the Fe2O3/Fe0.64Ni0.36 alloy@carbon structures. The Fe2O3/Fe0.64Ni0.36@C‐800 provides 274 mV overpotential in 1 m KOH solution at 10 mA cm−2 in OER. This work provides an effective basis for further research on Schiff base bimetallic doping‐derived carbon nanomaterials as excellent OER electrocatalysts.