Sol-gel derived low crystalline manganese-iron phosphide: a stable and efficient electrocatalyst for oxygen evolution reaction

The sluggish kinetics of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is a primary bottleneck that hampers the overall efficiency of water electrolysis. The exploration of transition metal phosphides (TMPs) as promising electrocatalysts for OER has attracted considerable interest in recent research. However, there remains a scarcity of studies focusing on the structural and morphological transformations that TMPs undergo due to inevitable surface reconstruction during the oxygen evolution reaction. In this work, a novel catalyst manganese-iron phosphide (MnFeP-500) electrocatalyst with remarkable activities was developed by sol-gel method for OER in alkaline medium. The synthesized MnFeP-500 catalysts supported on Ni foam exhibited over-potentials of 115 mV at 10 mA cm− 2 and 498 mV at 150 mA cm− 2, respectively for OER. Also, the physical and chemical properties of the prepared catalysts were studied by different characterization techniques. To evaluate its potential as a promising catalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction, a long-term durability test of the MnFeP-500 catalyst was performed in an alkaline medium, which demonstrated a stable performance over a continuous period of 15 h. The advancements achieved in this research offer important insights for the strategic design of a cost-effective, durable, and high-performance OER electrocatalyst in alkaline medium.