In situ autologous growth of self-supporting NiFe-based nanosheets on nickel foam as an efficient electrocatalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction

Jianying Wang; Xue Teng; Yanli Niu; Lixia Guo; Jianfei Kong; Xiaoming He; Zuofeng Chen

doi:10.1039/c9ra04368c

In situ autologous growth of self-supporting NiFe-based nanosheets on nickel foam as an efficient electrocatalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction

RSC Adv. 2019 Jul 12;9(38):21679-21684. doi: 10.1039/c9ra04368c. eCollection 2019 Jul 11.

Authors

Jianying Wang¹, Xue Teng¹, Yanli Niu¹, Lixia Guo¹, Jianfei Kong², Xiaoming He¹, Zuofeng Chen^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Shanghai Key Lab of Chemical Assessment and Sustainability, School of Chemical Science and Engineering, Tongji University Shanghai 200092 China zfchen@tongji.edu.cn.
² Jiangsu Vocational College of Medicine Yancheng 224005 Jiangsu Province China.
³ College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Longyan University Longyan Fujian 364012 China.

Abstract

A highly efficient and low-cost oxygen evolution reaction electrocatalyst is essential for water splitting. Herein, a simple and cost-effective autologous growth method is developed to prepare NiFe-based integrated electrodes for water oxidation. In this method, a Ni(OH)₂ nanosheet film is first developed on nickel foam by oxidative deposition in a chemical bath solution. The as-prepared nanosheet electrode is then immersed into a solution containing Fe(iii) cations to form an Fe-doped Ni(OH)₂ electrode by utilization of the different solubility of metal cations. Benefiting from its unique and integrated nanostructure, this hierarchically structured electrode displays extremely high catalytic activity toward water oxidation. In 1 M KOH, the electrode can deliver a current density of 1000 mA cm^-2 at an overpotential of only 330 mV. This work provides a facile way to produce an efficient, durable, and Earth-abundant OER electrocatalyst with no energy input, which is attractive for large-scale water splitting.