Cobalt doped iron phosphate thin film: An effective catalyst for electrochemical water splitting

Abstract For practically feasible water splitting to fulfill the need of energy, the development of efficient, robust and long lasting catalyst is necessary. Transition metal compounds facilitates the good catalytic properties due to facile transition of their oxidation states. We here reported a novel process for the synthesis of novel material as cobalt doped iron phosphate thin films. The pristine iron phosphate thin films have synthesized by regular facile hydrothermal method and to achieve doping of the cobalt into iron phosphate, second step hydrothermal ion-exchange process was used. The as synthesized cobalt doped iron phosphate thin film electrode exhibits excellent electrochemical OER and HER catalytic water splitting performance. The prepared material was demonstrated by two electrodes overall water splitting electrolyzer in alkaline medium at lowest potential of 1.72 V to deliver 10 mA/cm2 current density after 4 days’ continuous water splitting test. The outstanding catalytic stability proved 0.4 Co:FePi thin film electrodes are robust water splitting electrocatalyst.