Enhancing the oxygen evolution reaction performance of NiFeOOH electrocatalyst for Zn-air battery by N-doping

• Published in: Journal of catalysis 2020-09, Vol.389, p.375-381
• Main Authors: Li, Jiawang, Song, Jidong, Huang, Bo-Ying, Liang, Guofeng, Liang, Wanli, Huang, Guoju, Qi Jin, Yan, Zhang, Hao, Xie, Fangyan, Chen, Jian, Wang, Nan, Jin, Yanshuo, Li, Xi-Bo, Meng, Hui
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Metal oxyhydroxide; N-doping; Nickel sulfide; Oxygen evolution reaction; Precatalysts
• ISSN: 0021-9517; 1090-2694
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jcat.2020.06.022

[Display omitted] •NiFeOOH is greatly activated by N-doping to get an efficient OER catalyst.•The effect of N-doping in oxyhydroxides for the OER is revealed for the first time.•The N-NiFeOOH exhibits superior performance for OER. Metal oxyhydroxides are regarded as active catalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Herein, we creatively report NiFeOOH is greatly activated by N-doping to get an efficient OER catalyst. The effect of N-doping in the resulted metal oxyhydroxides for the OER is revealed for the first time. N-doped NiFeOOH (N-NiFeOOH) is in-situ derived from N-(NiFe)3S2 precatalyst by electrochemical oxidation. N-NiFeOOH exhibits superior performance with a low overpotential of 278 mV at the current density of 100 mA cm−2 and a small Tafel slope of 35.3 mV dec−1, which is comparable to the most excellent non-noble catalysts. DFT calculations reveal that N-doping would lower the d-band center of the surface metal atoms and in turn increase the adsorption ability of *OH on NiFeOOH, thereby reducing the OER overpotential. The key role of N-doping in the NiFeOOH for enhancing OER performance is reported for the first time, which will shed light on the design of catalysts.