Fabrication of NiFe layered double hydroxide with well-defined laminar superstructure as highly efficient oxygen evolution electrocatalysts

• Published in: Nano research Vol. 12; no. 6; pp. 1327 - 1331
• Main Authors: Zhang, Hao, Li, Haoyi, Akram, Bilal, Wang, Xun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Beijing Tsinghua University Press 01.06.2019; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Atomic/Molecular Structure and Spectra; Biomedicine; Biotechnology; Catalysis; Catalysts; Catalytic activity; Chemistry and Materials Science; Condensed Matter Physics; Electrocatalysts; Energy conversion; Energy storage; Fabrication; Hydroxides; Intermetallic compounds; Iron compounds; Ligands; Materials Science; Morphology; Nanoparticles; Nanotechnology; Nickel compounds; Oxygen; Oxygen evolution reactions; Renewable energy; Renewable resources; Research Article; Sodium; Sodium dodecyl sulfate; Sodium lauryl sulfate; Superstructures; Surfactants; Synergistic effect; structure–activity relationship; oxygen evolution reaction; ultrathin nanostructure; layered double hydroxide; electrocatalysis
• ISSN: 1998-0124; 1998-0000
• DOI: 10.1007/s12274-019-2284-0

Structure–activity relationship (SAR) is the key problem of nanoscience, thus to fabricate novel and well-defined nanostructure will provide a new insight on catalyst preparation method. Highly active and low cost electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are of great importance for future renewable energy conversion and storage. Herein, NiFe-based layered double hydroxides with laminar structure (NFLS) were successfully fabricated via a one-step hydrothermal approach by using sodium dodecyl sulfate as surfactant. The as-fabricated NFLS showed a well-defined periodic layered-stacking geometry with a scale down to 1-nm. Benefitting from the unique structure, NFLS exhibited an excellent catalytic activity towards OER with current densities of 10 mA·cm −2 at overpotential of 197 mV. The synergistic effect of Ni and Fe plays a key role in electrode reactions. The present work provides a new insight to improve the OER performance by rational design of electrocatalysts with unique structures.