In Situ Electrochemical Activation of a Codoped Heterogeneous System as a Highly Efficient Catalyst for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction in Alkaline Water Electrolysis

Abstract

Highly active electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) hold a key to water-splitting, particularly in the development of cost-effective and highly efficient oxygen evolution electrodes (OEE) with prolonged stability to meet industrial requirements, where the reliably withstanding large current densities(≥ 500 mA cm-2) is highly desired. This report shows how a hybrid NF@CGO with a catalytic layer codoped by nickel crystals, cobalt tetroxide (Co3O4), graphene oxide (GO) and in-situ-generated Ni(OH)2/NiOOH via codeposition in combination with in situ electrochemical activation, acts as a promising OEE for alkaline water electrolysis. Notably, this hybrid catalyst shows excellent electrocatalytic performance toward OER in 1.0 M KOH with 212 mV low overpotentials to achieve a catalytic current density of 10 mA cm-2, which is comparable to the state-of-the-art noble catalysts. The NF@CGO as an electrocatalytically-active and robust OER electrode also exhibits strong long-term electrochemical durabi...