Efficient oxygen evolution reaction from iron-molybdenum nitride/molybdenum oxide heterostructured composites.

Integrating various active sites into a multi-component system might significantly enhance the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performance. Herein, the as-prepared iron-molybdenum nitride/molybdenum oxide (Fe-MoN/MoO-550) composite electrocatalyst under optimum conditions demonstrates excellent electrocatalytic performance toward OER and reaches current densities of 10 and 20 mA cm at overpotentials of 201 and 216 mV, respectively. The OER performance of Fe-MoN/MoO-550 exceeds that of most previously reported electrocatalytic systems. The significant improvement in the OER performance is ascribed to a combination of mechanisms. The strong electronic interactions among the Fe, MoN and MoO species can accelerate the OER reaction kinetics, which contributes to the OER performance. This work provides new insights into the construction of efficient electrocatalytic materials with inexpensive metals.