Efficient bifunctional catalysts for overall water splitting: porous Fe-Mo oxide hybrid nanorods.

Efficient and inexpensive bifunctional catalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) are essential for water splitting. Herein, we successfully prepare porous Fe-Mo oxide hybrid nanorods through a hydrothermal method followed by annealing at high temperature. They exhibit excellent catalytic activity for OER and HER in alkaline media, and produce a current density of 10 mA cm-2 at overpotentials of 200 and 66 mV. Besides, they work as bifunctional electrode materials for overall water splitting, achieving a current density of 10 mA cm-2 at a voltage of 1.52 V, and maintaining a current density of 60 mA cm-2 for 60 h. The unique morphology with self-supported structure can expose more active sites and facilitate charge transfer, and is not easy to peel off, thus it improves the catalytic activity and stability. This work therefore provides a valuable route for designing and fabricating inexpensive and high-performance catalytic materials for overall water splitting.