Hierarchical porous nickel supported NiFeOxHy nanosheets for efficient and robust oxygen evolution electrocatalyst under industrial condition

Abstract

As an ideal clean energy carrier, hydrogen is regarded as the most promising alternative to replace fossil fuels in the future energy system. Compared to the traditional steam reforming process, water electrolysis is an innovative method for green hydrogen production. The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) with slow kinetics limits the efficiency of water electrolysis, thus, the fabrication of efficient and robust electrocatalysts for OER is highly desirable to promote the development of hydrogen industry. Herein, we developed a robust OER electrocatalyst by coupling NiFeOxHy nanosheets with porous nickel (PN) substrate via bubble template method. The NiFeOxHy-PN electrocatalyst displays superior electrocatalytic performance, the overpotential for OER at 100 mA cm−2 and 1000 mA cm−2 are 265 mV and 326 mV, respectively. Especially, the NiFeOxHy-PN exhibits better activity and durability than the commercial Raney nickel (RN) in alkaline water electrolysis under industrial conditions, which indicates its potential for industrial application. This work provides an efficient strategy to synthesize advanced electrocatalyst for alkaline water electrolysis.