3D Nanostructured Nickel Hydroxide as an Efficient Electrocatalyst for Oxygen Evolution Reaction

• Published in: Electrocatalysis 2022-11, Vol.13 (6), p.873-886
• Main Authors: Li, Tong, Ma, Xinxia, Wang, Daolei, Wu, Jiang, Zheng, Fasong, Jin, Jiawen, Wang, Qikun, Hao, Liangsheng, Li, Zhaojie, Huang, Sijia
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Catalysis; Catalysts; Catalytic activity; Chemical synthesis; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Electrocatalysts; Electrochemistry; Energy Systems; Ion transport; Nanoparticles; Nanospheres; Nickel; Nickel compounds; Original Research; Oxidation; Oxygen evolution reactions; Physical Chemistry; Reaction kinetics; Transition metals; Water splitting
• ISSN: 1868-2529; 1868-5994
• DOI: 10.1007/s12678-022-00757-z

The exploration of high-efficiency and reliable non-precious metal electrocatalysts for overall water splitting is greatly vital and challenging for scientists to explore the physical structure effects with OER catalysts. Herein, we firstly developed three-dimensional ɑlpha-nickel hydroxide as an advantageous electrocatalyst for OER by a simple solvothermal method. By controlling the solvent, two kinds of regular and one kind of irregular pure ɑlpha-nickel hydroxide were successfully synthesized. Two regular catalysts’ catalytic activity can be enhanced by the level of regularity increasing. Interestingly, with the increase of irregularity, compared with nanosphere-like Ni(OH) 2 , nanoparticle-sphere-like Ni(OH) 2 sample’s specific surface areas, the number of ion transport channels, and reaction kinetics performance also raise, which actually enhances catalytic activity. In a word, the most irregular Ni(OH) 2 -NPS has the best electrocatalytic activity ( η  = 250 mV) and the lowest Tafel slope (73.9 mV dec −1 ), and the outstanding constancy (8 h) at 1.48 V (vs. RHE) could be achieved, meanwhile, the benchmark RuO 2 (340 mV and 87.4 mV dec −1 ) is also inferior to Ni(OH) 2 -NPS. By comparing three Ni(OH) 2 samples, this work provides a new single transition metal system for about 3D materials and facilitates the development of highly efficient water oxidation catalysts. Graphical Abstract