Heterointerface enhanced NiFe LDH/V–Co4N electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction

• Published in: Journal of materials chemistry. A, Materials for energy and sustainability Vol. 10; no. 40; pp. 21523 - 21530
• Main Authors: Zhang, Shuya, Wang, Lan, Xie, Tianzhu, Chen, Qiming, Peng, Wenchao, Yang, Li, Zhang, Fengbao, Fan, Xiaobin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge Royal Society of Chemistry 01.01.2022
• Subjects: Catalysts; Electrocatalysts; Energy technology; Free energy; Intermetallic compounds; Iron compounds; Metal nitrides; Nanotechnology; Nanowires; Nickel compounds; Oxygen; Oxygen evolution reactions; Renewable energy technologies; Structural analysis; Transition metals
• ISSN: 2050-7488; 2050-7496
• DOI: 10.1039/d2ta04120k

The development of high-performance and low-cost electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is of great importance for renewable energy technologies. Herein, a highly efficient and stable self-supported electrocatalyst with V–Co4N nanowires as the core and NiFe LDH nanosheet arrays as the shell is developed. The obtained NiFe LDH/V–Co4N@NF shows strong electronic interaction at the heterointerface, which remarkably boosts its OER performance. It exhibits ultralow overpotentials of 203 and 240 mV at 10 and 100 mA cm−2 in 1 M KOH solution, respectively, together with a much smaller Tafel slope of 26.0 mV dec−1 and robust long-term durability. Structural characterization reveals that doping V contributes to the interfacial electron coupling between Co species and Fe species. Theoretical calculations confirm that the heterointerfaces reduce the free energy barriers of the rate-determining step. This study demonstrates the possibility of improving the OER performance of transition metal nitride catalysts through heterointerface engineering.