Recent Advances on the Use of Nickel Nano Layered Double Hydroxides as Green, and Efficient, Catalysts for Water Splitting

Abstract

This review focusses on the recent developments in designing Layered Double Hydroxides (LDHs) with conductive, interlayer anion replacement, for efficient hydrogen fuel production by water splitting through Oxygen Evolution Reactions (OER) and Hydrogen Evolution Reactions (HER). Nickel nano structured catalysts improves OER performance are highlighted in detail in terms of compositional differences between transitional metal components, and challenges in future designing of rationalized Ni and Ni nano LDHs. The layered structure has exceptional flexibility of incorporating mixed valence transition metal ions into the LDHs structure in different compositions and this opens the massive potential to design high-performance LDHs catalysts on the molecular and nanometer scales. LDHs such as NiCoFe LDHs, Ni foam, Co Ni nano spheres, RuO2, Ir(dppe)2Cl, NiS2, Ni–N–Co-doped carbon nano fibers, NiCoSe2/cHRD are attracting increasing interest in the field of water splitting into hydrogen and oxygen due to their unique physicochemical properties. The highlighted summary will provide useful information in the development of novel Ni LDHs catalysts, which enables better understanding of OER properties valuable to address key issues. Increased fundamental understanding of water splitting catalysts would allow for rationally-directed improvements.