A facile and scalable complexation-precipitation method of iron doped nickel hydroxide nanosheets as a superior oxygen evolution catalyst

Recently, numerous researches have been conducted to develop non-precious metal catalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER), among which NiFe oxyhydroxides as the efficient catalysts have been intensively investigated. Herein, we demonstrate NiFe layered double hydroxides (NiFe-LDHs) nanosheets as highly active OER catalysts, which are synthesized by a facile, scalable and template free method. The ordered nanosheets structure of NiFe-LDHs with Fe contents from 0 to 25% was obtained at low temperature with precisely controlled the pH value by complexation-precipitation process. Compared with 20% commercial Ir/C, the obtained sample with 15% Fe exhibits superior catalytic performance in 1 mol L−1 KOH solution. Its overpotential and Tafel slope are, 216 mV and 37 mV dec−1, lower than that of 20% Ir/C (330 mV and 130 mV dec−1) respectively at a current density of 10 mA cm−2. Furthermore, it also exhibits superior stability and durability to 20% Ir/C in 15 h galvanostatic polarization experiments.