Borate-ion intercalated NiFe layered double hydroxide to simultaneously boost mass transport and charge transfer for catalysis of water oxidation

Lan Su; Hongfang Du; Chun Tang; Kaikai Nan; Jinggao Wu; Chang Ming Li

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2018.05.075

Borate-ion intercalated NiFe layered double hydroxide to simultaneously boost mass transport and charge transfer for catalysis of water oxidation

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2018 Oct 15:528:36-44. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2018.05.075. Epub 2018 May 22.

Authors

Lan Su¹, Hongfang Du¹, Chun Tang¹, Kaikai Nan¹, Jinggao Wu¹, Chang Ming Li²

Affiliations

¹ Institute for Clean Energy & Advanced Materials, Faculty of Materials and Energy, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, PR China; Chongqing Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials and Technologies of Clean Energies, Chongqing 400715, PR China.
² Institute for Clean Energy & Advanced Materials, Faculty of Materials and Energy, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, PR China; Institute of Materials Science and Devices, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou 215011, PR China; Chongqing Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials and Technologies of Clean Energies, Chongqing 400715, PR China. Electronic address: ecmli@swu.edu.cn.

PMID: 29807354
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2018.05.075

Abstract

Borate ion-intercalated NiFe layered double hydroxide (NiFe LDH) is synthesized as a highly active electrocatalyst toward oxygen evolution reaction (OER) for the first time. With the intercalation of borate ions, the interlayer spacing and specific surface area of the NiFe LDH are increased, meanwhile the pore size distribution shifts to a larger pore size range. The borate ion-intercalated catalyst prepared at 20% of Fe content in presence of 0.05 M sodium borate additive exhibits the highest OER electrocatalytic activity, which shows a low onset overpotential of 270 mV and a Tafel slope of 42 mV dec^-1. The high catalytic activity of intercalated OER catalyst can be attributed to the enhanced mass transport and charge transfer as well as the increased specific surface area due to the borate ion intercalation. In addition, the intercalated borate ions act as a proton-accepting agent help to promote OO bond formation during OER. This work would open up a novel strategy for the synthesis of ion-intercalated layered materials for high-performance water splitting applications.

Keywords: Borate ion; Electrocatalyst; Intercalation; NiFe LDH; Water oxidation.