An effective lattice engineering method to simultaneously control the defect structure and the porosity of layered double hydroxides (LDHs) was developed by adjusting the elastic deformation and chemical interactions of the nanosheets during the restacking process. The enlargement of the intercalant size and the lowering of the charge density were effective in increasing the content of oxygen vacancies and enhancing the porosity of the stacked nanosheets via layer thinning. The defect-rich Co-Al-LDH-NO3- nanohybrid with a small stacking number exhibited excellent performance as an oxygen evolution electrocatalyst and supercapacitor electrode with a large specific capacitance of ∼2230 F g-1 at 1 A g-1, which is the largest capacitance of carbon-free LDH-based electrodes reported to date. Combined with the results of density functional theory calculations, the observed excellent correlations between the overpotential/capacitance and the defect content/stacking number highlight the importance of defect/stacking structures in optimizing the energy functionalities. This was attributed to enhanced orbital interactions with water/hydroxide at an increased number of defect sites. The present cost-effective lattice engineering process can therefore provide an economically feasible methodology to explore high-performance electrocatalyst/electrode materials.
Keywords: defect structure; energy functionality; lattice engineering; layered double hydroxide nanosheet; stacking number.