Interface charge distribution modulation of Au@NiO Core-Shell nanoparticles for efficient oxygen evolution reaction

Abstract

Developing non-precious metal catalysts with efficient catalytic activity and excellent durability of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is of prime importance. As a consequence, we effectively achieved significant OER improvement by constructing Au@NiO core–shell octahedral nanoparticles with optimized charge distribution. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations expounded that the existence of Au species, which serves as an electron acceptor, can effectively induce charge redistribution and modulate of binding strength between intermediates and catalysts, resulting in noticeable improvement in catalytic performance for alkaline OER, compared with pristine NiO electrode. Our proposed strategy for implementing interface charge distribution by constructing a core–shell structure may be applicable to other Ni-based OER electrocatalysts.