LAUSR

Rational design of electrocatalysts with unique morphological structures and chemical compositions is crucial for electrochemical performance and energy storage capacity. In this work, an Fe-doped NiCoP hybrid hollow nanocage (denoted as Fe-NiCoP) was synthesized through the phosphorization of the product from [Fe(CN)6] 3−-intercalated NiCo-LDH (layered double hydroxide), where the original ZIF-67-Co was used as the template. Because of the hollow nanostructure and the synergistic effect between multiple components, the Fe-NiCoP catalyst exhibited promising hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activities in 1.0 M KOH with low overpotentials of 147 and 235 mV at 10 mA cm−2, respectively. Furthermore, the Fe-NiCoP catalyst only achieved a current density of 10 mA cm−2 at the voltage of 1.60 V. Inspired by the excellent OER performance of the Fe-NiCoP catalyst, a Zn–air battery was built to explore the Fe-NiCoP catalyst for practical application. After 900 successive cycles, the FeNiCoP + Pt/C catalysts exhibited excellent cycling stability at 5 mA cm−2, which was a much stronger performance than that of the RuO2 + Pt/C catalysts. This work provides a practical strategy for the synthesis of high-performance and low-cost electrocatalysts.