Application of Ultrathin Al ₇₂ Cr ₁₆ Fe ₁₂ Quasicrystal Nanosheets in Binder-Free Bifunctional Electrocatalysts for Water Splitting

Two-dimensional (2D) quasicrystal nanomaterials exhibit immense potential for achieving performance breakthroughs owing to their distinctive quasiperiodic atomic arrangements. In this study, we successfully prepared atomically thin Al 72 Cr 16 Fe 12 quasicrystal nanosheets via a liquid-phase shear exfoliation method. Through a facile hydroxylation-induced self-adsorption approach, the Al 72 Cr 16 Fe 12 nanosheets can be directly anchored onto nickel foam (NF) electrodes within 1 s. This constructs a binder-free, noble-metal-free bifunctional electrocatalyst exhibiting simultaneous activity for both the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). With only a microgram-level loading of Al 72 Cr 16 Fe 12 nanosheets, the overall water-splitting performance is enhanced by over 30%, achieving remarkably low cell voltages of 1.63 and 1.80 V at current densities of 10 and 100 mA cm −2, respectively. This work opens up new avenues for the application of quasicrystal nanosheets in electrocatalytic energy conversion.