Three-dimensional core–shell CoFe Prussian blue analog at NiCoFe layered ternary hydroxide electrocatalyst for efficient oxygen evolution reaction

Abstract

Layered double hydroxides are one of the most effective electrocatalysts owing to their compositional and structural flexibility. However, their self-stacking leads to limited active sites and low conductivity. In this work, a three-dimensional (3D) core–shell architecture with spatially separated active sites has been fabricated based on layered ternary nickel cobalt iron hydroxide (NiCoFe-LTH) nanosheets and cobalt iron Prussian blue analog (CoFe-PBA) on nickel foam (NF) (i.e., CoFe-PBA@NiCoFe-LTH/NF) with CoFe-PBA as self-sacrificial templates that are partially in situ transformed into NiCoFe-LTH nanosheets. The CoFe-PBA@NiCoFe-LTH/NF has a well-defined core–shell 3D flower-like nanostructure in which NiCoFe-LTH nanosheets create the larger shell while CoFe-PBA nanocubes form the small core. This hybrid structure is evaluated as an electrocatalyst for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and found to exhibit a low overpotential of 228 mV at 10 mA cm−2, a low Tafel slope of 36 mV dec−1, and good catalytic stability for 72 h in 1.0 M alkaline solution. The strong performance is attributed to the unique 3D core–shell flower-like nanosheet architecture that avoids the stacking of the 2D LTH, provides abundant spatially separated active sites, and enhances electron transport and stability. Furthermore, the OER mechanism and growth process of the electrocatalysts were systematically studied. These results suggest that such electrocatalysts with unique architecture are promising for efficient and durable OER.