Heterostructural NiSe-CoFe LDH as a highly effective and stable electrocatalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction.

Abstract

Design and exploration of highly efficient oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalysts is an urgent task to realize the future ideals of the hydrogen economy. Non-precious metal-based nanomaterials have been widely developed as electrocatalysts to expedite reaction rate and solve the low efficiency problem of the OER. A novel nanocatalyst, NiSe-CoFe LDH, in which lamellar CoFe LDH covered the surface of NiSe, was fabricated through a simple chemical vapor deposition and hydrothermal method. The specific heterogeneous three-dimensional structure of NiSe-CoFe LDH showed impressive electrochemical performance towards the OER. When used as an OER electrocatalyst, the NiSe-CoFe LDH nanomaterial afforded an overpotential of 228 mV to attain 10 mA cm-2. Furthermore, NiSe-CoFe LDH also maintained excellent stability with negligible activity after chronopotentiometry measurement for 60 hours.