Surface engineering of MOF-derived FeCo/NC core-shell nanostructures to enhance alkaline water-splitting

MOF-derived catalysts show excellent performance in many electrochemical reactions, including alkaline water splitting. This manuscript describes synthesis of composite mixture by engineering the N-doped carbon (NC) layer on the surface of FeCo-doped MOF at nanoscale level via sonication, and pyrolysis process produced metal-coordinated N-doped carbon hybrids (FC-NC/NC). The addition of NC in FeCo bimetal contributes to larger-size and more robust carbon shells compared to bimetal-decorated without NC. The representative core shell assembly with greater electrolyte-accessible surface and enrich mass diffusion paths ultimately benefit the FC-NC/NC catalyst to demonstrate higher performance, which affords the minimum overpotentials of 295/193 mV towards oxygen/hydrogen evolution reactions, and stable durability performance under alkaline solution. Furthermore, the excellent water electrolyzer activity was achieved by FC-NC/NC with a cell voltage of 1.64 V at 10 mA cm−2. Hence, this strategy is a fruitful trial to optimized the active sites of FeCo-based electrocatalyst towards alkaline water electrolyzer.