Boosting Activity and Stability of Electrodeposited Amorphous Ce‐Doped NiFe‐Based Catalyst for Electrochemical Water Oxidation

Abstract

AbstractNiFe‐based hydroxides are considered as promising nonprecious catalysts for water oxidation due to their low cost and easy preparation. However, the rational design of NiFe‐based electrocatalysts remains a great challenge to address the sluggish reaction kinetics and severe deactivation problems for oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Here, the authors report a facile approach to fabricate an amorphous Ce‐doped NiFe hydroxide catalyst, which enables high activity and outstanding stability toward OER in alkaline media. The overpotential of electrodeposited amorphous Ce‐doped NiFe is only 195 mV at 10 mA cm−2. Meanwhile, the durability of the amorphous Ce‐doped NiFe is maintained for 300 h at 100 mA cm−2. The comprehensive characterization results reveal that the improved electrochemical performance of the amorphous Ce‐doped NiFe catalyst is originated from the favorable oxidation transition of active sites enabled by Ce‐doping. It is a very good strategy to introduce highly oxidized state ions to regulate the NiFe‐based catalyst to improve the catalytic activity and stability.