2D/2D interfacial coupling of NiFe-LDH and Ti3C2Tx for oxygen evolution reaction

Abstract

Designing electrocatalysts for electrochemical water splitting to generate renewable energy has been a prospective interest throughout the previous decade. The efficiency of electrochemical water splitting, however, is impeded by the sluggish kinetics of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Herein, the heterostructure of layered double hydroxides (NiFe-LDH) and MXene (Ti3C2Tx) were synthesized via hydrothermal (NiFe-LDH/Ti3C2Tx-H) and physical mixing (NiFe-LDH/Ti3C2Tx-P) methods. The NiFe-LDH/Ti3C2Tx-H exhibited an overpotential of 269 mV at 10 mA cm−2, indicating superior performance as compared to NiFe-LDH/Ti3C2Tx-P (353 mV) and RuO2 (313 mV). The double layer capacitance (Cdl) of NiFe-LDH/Ti3C2Tx-H was higher (2.05 mF cm−2) as compared to NiFe-LDH/Ti3C2Tx-P (1.63 mF cm−2), thus indicating more active sites for improving reaction kinetics. Additionally, the NiFe-LDH/Ti3C2Tx-H electrocatalyst retained stable performance (96.1%) after 10 h of chronopotentiometry at a constant current density of 10 mA cm−2.