Cost-effective polymetallic selenides derived from stainless steel foam (SSF) for overall water splitting

Electrocatalytic overall water splitting with renewable energy input has been recognized as one of the most promising approaches to produce clean H-2. While expensive catalysts and low energy conversion efficiency limited industrial application of this method. Herein, we reported a cost-effective and efficient water splitting electrocatalyst prepared by one-step thermo-selenation from readily available stainless steel foam. The activity of the synergistic multi-metal catalyst has been greatly improved, showing overpotentials of 237 mV and 263 mV for HER and OER, respectively, to achieve catalytic current density of 10 mA center dot cm(-2) in 1.0 M KOH. And the overall water splitting was achieved at 1.73 V. The stability of the composite catalyst is very high. These results showed that selenation of stainless steel was an promising method for large-scale preparation of overall water splitting electrocatalyst.