Partially amorphous NiFe layered double hydroxides enabling highly-efficiency oxygen evolution reaction at high current density

Guijin Yang; Dongyang Fang; Yujun Fu; Daqiang Gao; Chen Cheng; Jinyun Li

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2024.09.151

Partially amorphous NiFe layered double hydroxides enabling highly-efficiency oxygen evolution reaction at high current density

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2024 Sep 16;678(Pt C):717-725. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2024.09.151. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Guijin Yang¹, Dongyang Fang², Yujun Fu³, Daqiang Gao⁴, Chen Cheng², Jinyun Li²

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Atomic and Molecular Physics & Functional Materials of Gansu Province, College of Physics and Electronic Engineering, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, PR China. Electronic address: yanggj09@lzu.edu.cn.
² Key Laboratory of Atomic and Molecular Physics & Functional Materials of Gansu Province, College of Physics and Electronic Engineering, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, PR China.
³ Institute of Electronic Materials and Devices, School of Materials and Energy, Lanzhou University, PR China.
⁴ School of Physical Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, PR China.

PMID: 39307060
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2024.09.151

Abstract

Layered double hydroxide (LDH) serves as an innovative catalyst for water electrolysis, showcasing outstanding performance in the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) under alkaline conditions. However, it faces challenges due to its low electrical conductivity and limited accessibility to active sites. In this work, the flexibility advantages of disordered amorphous and ordered crystals in NiFe LDH were combined to improve OER performance and maintain long-term stability. This combination induces a variety of effects, including improving the intrinsic activity, changing the OER mechanism from adsorb evolution mechanism (AEM) to lattice oxygen mechanism (LOM), and promoting the reaction kinetics of the catalyst. Moreover, the porous structure of NiFe LDH can efficiently alleviate the issue of local acidic environment induced by prolonged OER reaction, satisfying the criteria for long-term stability. Therefore, the NiFe-2.0 LDH catalyst only requires an ultralow overpotential of 189 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm^-2 with Tafel slope of 43 mV dec^-1. More importantly, the catalyst not only displays excellent electrocatalytic activity with an overpotential of 289 mV but also represents an outstanding stability over 80 h at an ultra-high current density of 1 A cm^-2. This study provides a promising strategy for optimizing the catalytic activity and stability of catalyst at ampere current density, which is expected to achieve commercial applications.

Keywords: Amorphous; High current density; Lattice oxygen mechanism; NiFe LDH; Oxygen evolution reaction.