Interface Catalysts of Ni3Fe1 Layered Double Hydroxide and Titanium Carbide for High-Performance Water Oxidation in Alkaline and Natural Conditions

Fuzhan Song; Shaun Debow; Tong Zhang; Yuqin Qian; Zhi-Chao Huang-Fu; Kaylee Munns; Sydney Schmidt; Haley Fisher; Jesse B Brown; Yanqing Su; Zachary Zander; Brendan G DeLacy; Mark S Mirotznik; Robert L Opila; Yi Rao

doi:10.1021/acs.jpclett.3c00655

Interface Catalysts of Ni₃Fe₁ Layered Double Hydroxide and Titanium Carbide for High-Performance Water Oxidation in Alkaline and Natural Conditions

J Phys Chem Lett. 2023 Jun 22;14(24):5692-5700. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.3c00655. Epub 2023 Jun 14.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Utah State University, Logan, Utah 84322, United States.
² U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Chemical Biological Center, Research & Technology Directorate, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland 21010, United States.
³ Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Utah State University, Logan, Utah 84322, United States.
⁴ Ballydel Technologies, Inc., Wilmington, Delaware 19803, United States.
⁵ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware 19711, United States.
⁶ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware 19711, United States.

PMID: 37315210
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.3c00655

Abstract

The electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is important for many renewable energy technologies. Developing cost-effective electrocatalysts with high performance remains a great challenge. Here, we successfully demonstrate our novel interface catalyst comprised of Ni₃Fe₁-based layered double hydroxides (Ni₃Fe₁-LDH) vertically immobilized on a two-dimensional MXene (Ti₃C₂T_x) surface. The Ni₃Fe₁-LDH/Ti₃C₂T_x yielded an anodic OER current of 100 mA cm^-2 at 0.28 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE), nearly 74 times lower than that of the pristine Ni₃Fe₁-LDH. Furthermore, the Ni₃Fe₁-LDH/Ti₃C₂T_x catalyst requires an overpotential of only 0.31 V versus RHE to deliver an industrial-level current density as high as 1000 mA cm^-2. Such excellent OER activity was attributed to the synergistic interface effect between Ni₃Fe₁-LDH and Ti₃C₂T_x. Density functional theory (DFT) results further reveal that the Ti₃C₂T_x support can efficiently accelerate the electron extraction from Ni₃Fe₁-LDH and tailor the electronic structure of catalytic sites, resulting in enhanced OER performance.