Spatially confined growth of ultrathin NiFe layered double hydroxide nanosheets within carbon nanofibers network for highly efficient water oxidation

Abstract

The rational design of catalysts with low cost, high efficient and robust stability toward oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is greatly desired but remains a formidable challenge. In this work, a one-pot, spatially confined strategy was reported to fabricate ultrathin NiFe layered double hydroxide (NiFe-LDH) nanosheets interconnected by ultrafine, strong carbon nanofibers (CNFs) network. The as-fabricated NiFe-LDH/CNFs catalyst exhibits enhanced OER catalytic activity in terms of low overpotential of 230 mV to obtain an OER current density of 10 mA cm−2 and very small Tafel slope of 34 mV dec−1, outperforming pure NiFe-LDH nanosheets assembly, commercial RuO2, and most non-noble metal catalysts ever reported. It also delivers an excellent structural and electrocatalytic stability upon the long-term OER operation at a large current of 30 mA cm−2 for 40 h. Furthermore, the cell assembled by using NiFe-LDH/CNFs and commercial Pt/C as anode (+) and cathode (−) ((+)NiFe-LDH/CNFs||Pt/C(−)) only requires a potential of 1.50 V to deliver the water splitting current of 10 mA cm−2, 130 mV lower than that of (+)RuO2||Pt/C(−) couple, demonstrating great potential for applications in cost-efficient water splitting devices.