Constructing Low-Crystallinity FeNiOOH @ Atomically Dispersed Pt Catalysts with Low-Potential Oxygen Evolution Reaction for Water Electrolysis and Zinc-Air Batteries

The four-electron transfer process of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) results in slow kinetics and requires a high overpotential, which significantly increases the energy consumption of the system and reduces its overall efficiency. Herein, the low-crystallinity FeNiOOH support coupled with atomically dispersed platinum (Pt) catalyst is successfully constructed by component optimization and morphology modulation. The obtained Pt2.08/Fe1Ni1OOH catalysts facilitate the transfer of active centers from FeOOH to γ-NiOOH via Pt and significantly reduce the overpotential (200 mV at 10 mA cm–2) by dynamically enhancing disorder within the NiOOH structure during the OER process. In addition, Pt2.08/Fe1Ni1OOH catalysts exhibit good HER (145 mV at 10 mA cm–2) and ORR (half-wave potential of 0.8 V) performances under alkaline conditions. Meanwhile, Pt2.08/Fe1Ni1OOH maintains minimal loss in a 300 h cycling test in zinc-air batteries. This work provides an effective strategy for developing low-cost and efficient trifunctional electrocatalysts that can be utilized in alkaline water electrolysis and zinc-air batteries.