Constructing 0D/2D PtFeNiCoCu High-Entropy Materials for Efficient Water Oxidation

Electricity-powered water electrolysis, combined with the fabrication of advanced electrocatalysts and an electrolyzer design, is a promising solution for hydrogen production. However, the excessive overpotential of the anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in electrolysis hinders the widespread industrial application of water electrolysis. Herein, without requiring harsh synthesis conditions, ultrafine PtFeNiCoCu high-entropy alloy (HEA) highly dispersed on amorphous nanosheets was constructed using a chemical coreduction strategy at room temperature. The resulting 0D/2D quinary PtFeNiCoCu high-entropy material (HEM) was developed as an efficient and durable electrocatalyst for OER under 1.0 M KOH alkaline conditions, exhibiting an overpotential of 248 mV at 10 mA cm–2, mass activities of 128.6 A g–1 at an overpotential of 300 mV, and stable operation at a constant current density of 60 mA cm–2 over 60 h during the constant voltage chronoamperometric test. Based on the electrochemical efficiency of the high-entropy alloy material, a “sandwich” flowing zero-gap anion exchange membrane water electrolyzer (AEMWE) was self-customized, with commercial Pt/C loaded on Ni foam (NF) as the cathode and PtFeNiCoCu-HEM/NF as the anode. The electrolyzer exhibited excellent electrolysis performance, achieving water electrolysis at only 1.59 V to reach 10 mA cm–2 and maintaining steady operation for 55 h in a 1.0 M KOH solution. The successful construction of this new generation of electrocatalytic materials is expected to promote the industrial application of electrocatalytic water-splitting devices, thereby alleviating environmental problems and addressing the energy crisis.