Structural design and electronic modulation of iron-based sulfides electrocatalysts for water splitting

<p indent="0mm">With increasingly severe environmental pollution and the depletion of traditional fossil fuels, it is urgent to explore renewable and clean energy sources. Electrolysis of water, as a resource rich, simple process, and zero carbon emission technology, is regard as one of the most promising methods for producing carbon free hydrogen. The key to hydrogen production by water electrolys is to reduce the overpotential required by hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Nowadays, non-noble metal materials have been widely studied as water electrolytic catalysts. Among them, iron-based (Fe-based) sulfides are regarded as a highly promising electrolysis catalyst due to its high elemental reserves and certain resemblances to the active center of hydrogenase. In recent years, researchers have mainly improved the catalytic activity of Fe based sulfides through constructing nanostructures, element doping, and interface engineering etc. Herein, this review systematically summarizes recent research progress of Fe-based sulfides electrocatalysts for water splitting, and describes the structure-activity relationships between the morphology design, electronic structure modulatin and activity of the catalysts. Finally, we point out the challenges and future prospects of Fe-based sulfide in practical applications.