Journal Home > Volume 14 , Issue 12

The rational fabrication of highly efficient electrocatalysts with low cost toward oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is greatly desired but remains a formidable challenge. In this work, we present a facile and straightforward method of incorporating NiCo-layered double hydroxide (NiCo-LDH) into GO-dispersed CNTs (GO-CNTs) with interconnected configuration. X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) reveals the strong electron interaction between NiCo-LDH and the underlying GO-CNTs substrate, which is supposed to facilitate charge transfer and accelerate the kinetics for OER. By tuning the amount of CNTs, the optimized NiCo-LDH/GO-CNTs composite can achieve a low overpotential of 290 mV at 10 mA·cm−2 current density, a small Tafel slope of 66.8 mV·dec−1 and robust stability, superior to the pure NiCo-LDH and commercial RuO2 in alkaline media. The preeminent oxygen evolution performance is attributed to the synergistic effect stemming from the merits and the intimate electron interaction between LDH and GO-CNTs. This allows NiCo-LDH/GO-CNTs to be potentially applied in an industrial non-noble metal-based water electrolyzer as the anodic catalysts.


menu
Abstract
Full text
Outline
Electronic supplementary material
About this article

NiCo-LDH nanosheets strongly coupled with GO-CNTs as a hybrid electrocatalyst for oxygen evolution reaction

Show Author's information Peiqun Yin1,2,3( )Geng Wu2Xiaoqian Wang2Shoujie Liu5Fangyao Zhou2Lei Dai4( )Xin Wang2Bo Yang1Zhen-Qiang Yu1( )
School of Chemistry and Environmental Engineering, Institute of Low-dimensional Materials Genome Initiative Shenzhen UniversityShenzhen 518060 China
School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale University of Science and Technology of ChinaHefei 230026 China
School of Biomedical Engineering and Research and Engineering Center of Biomedical Materials Anhui Medical UniversityHefei 230032 China
Key Laboratory for Special Functional Materials of Ministry of Education School of Materials, Henan UniversityKaifeng 475004 China
Chemistry and Chemical Engineering of Guangdong LaboratoryShantou 515063 China

Abstract

The rational fabrication of highly efficient electrocatalysts with low cost toward oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is greatly desired but remains a formidable challenge. In this work, we present a facile and straightforward method of incorporating NiCo-layered double hydroxide (NiCo-LDH) into GO-dispersed CNTs (GO-CNTs) with interconnected configuration. X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) reveals the strong electron interaction between NiCo-LDH and the underlying GO-CNTs substrate, which is supposed to facilitate charge transfer and accelerate the kinetics for OER. By tuning the amount of CNTs, the optimized NiCo-LDH/GO-CNTs composite can achieve a low overpotential of 290 mV at 10 mA·cm−2 current density, a small Tafel slope of 66.8 mV·dec−1 and robust stability, superior to the pure NiCo-LDH and commercial RuO2 in alkaline media. The preeminent oxygen evolution performance is attributed to the synergistic effect stemming from the merits and the intimate electron interaction between LDH and GO-CNTs. This allows NiCo-LDH/GO-CNTs to be potentially applied in an industrial non-noble metal-based water electrolyzer as the anodic catalysts.

Keywords: electrocatalysts, oxygen evolution, NiCo-LDH/GO-CNTs composite, intimate electron interaction

References(57)

1

Yang, Z. G.; Zhang, J. L.; Kintner-Meyer, M. C. W.; Lu, X. C.; Choi, D.; Lemmon, J. P.; Liu, J. Electrochemical energy storage for green grid. Chem. Rev. 2011, 111, 3577–3613.

2

Chu, S.; Majumdar, A. Opportunities and challenges for a sustai­nable energy future. Nature 2012, 488, 294–303.

3

Chen, J. G.; Crooks, R. M.; Seefeldt, L. C.; Bren, K. L.; Bullock, R. M.; Darensbourg, M. Y.; Holland, P. L.; Hoffman, B.; Janik, M. J.; Jones, A. K. et al. Beyond fossil fuel-driven nitrogen transformations. Science 2018, 360, eaar6611.

4

Li, X. N.; Liu, L. H.; Ren, X. Y.; Gao, J. J.; Huang, Y. Q.; Liu, B. Microenvironment modulation of single-atom catalysts and their roles in electrochemical energy conversion. Sci. Adv. 2020, 6, eabb6833.

5

Liu, H. L.; Zhu, Y. T.; Ma, J. M.; Zhang, Z. C.; Hu, W. P. Recent advances in atomic-level engineering of nanostructured catalysts for electrochemical CO2 reduction. Adv. Funct. Mater. 2020, 30, 1910534.

6

Qin, Q.; Oschatz, M. Overcoming chemical inertness under ambient conditions: A critical view on recent developments in ammonia synthesis via electrochemical N2 reduction by asking five questions. ChemElectroChem 2020, 7, 878–889.

7

Mistry, H.; Varela, A. S.; Kühl, S.; Strasser, P.; Cuenya, B. R. Nanostructured electrocatalysts with tunable activity and selectivity. Nat. Rev. Mater. 2016, 1, 16009.

8

Seh, Z. W.; Kibsgaard, J.; Dickens, C. F.; Chorkendorff, I.; Nørskov, J. K.; Jaramillo, T. F. Combining theory and experiment in electrocatalysis: Insights into materials design. Science 2017, 355, eaad4998.

9

Wang, H. F.; Xu, Q. Materials design for rechargeable metal-air batteries. Matter 2019, 1, 565–595.

10

Dai, L. M.; Xue, Y. H.; Qu, L. T.; Choi, H. J.; Baek, J. B. Metal-free catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction. Chem. Rev. 2015, 115, 4823–4892.

11

Yin, P. Q.; You, B. Atom migration-trapping toward single-atom catalysts for energy electrocatalysis. Mater. Today Energy 2021, 19, 100586.

12

Yin, P. Q.; Yao, T.; Wu, Y.; Zheng, L. R.; Lin, Y.; Liu, W.; Ju, H. X.; Zhu, J. F.; Hong, X.; Deng, Z. X. et al. Single cobalt atoms with precise N-coordination as superior oxygen reduction reaction catalysts. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2016, 55, 10800–10805.

13

Bockris, J. O. M. The origin of ideas on a hydrogen economy and its solution to the decay of the environment. Int. J. Hydrog. Energy 2002, 27, 731–740.

14

Gao, M. R.; Zheng, Y. R.; Jiang, J.; Yu, S. H. Pyrite-type nanomaterials for advanced electrocatalysis. Acc. Chem. Res. 2017, 50, 2194–2204.

15

Roger, I.; Shipman, M. A.; Symes, M. D. Earth-abundant catalysts for electrochemical and photoelectrochemical water splitting. Nat. Rev. Chem. 2017, 1, 0003.

16

You, B.; Sun, Y. J. Innovative strategies for electrocatalytic water splitting. Acc. Chem. Res. 2018, 51, 1571–1580.

17

Jiao, Y.; Zheng, Y.; Jaroniec, M.; Qiao, S. Z. Design of electrocatalysts for oxygen- and hydrogen-involving energy conversion reactions. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2015, 44, 2060–2086.

18

Yao, Y. C.; Hu, S. L.; Chen, W. X.; Huang, Z. Q.; Wei, W. C.; Yao, T.; Liu, R. R.; Zang, K. T.; Wang, X. Q.; Wu, G. et al. Engineering the electronic structure of single atom Ru sites via compressive strain boosts acidic water oxidation electrocatalysis. Nat. Catal. 2019, 2, 304–313.

19

Song, J. J.; Wei, C.; Huang, Z. F.; Liu, C. T.; Zeng, L.; Wang, X.; Xu, Z. J. A review on fundamentals for designing oxygen evolution electrocatalysts. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2020, 49, 2196–2214.

20

Dai, L.; Chen, Z. N.; Li, L. X.; Yin, P. Q.; Liu, Z. Q.; Zhang, H. Ultrathin Ni(0)-embedded Ni(OH)2 heterostructured nanosheets with enhanced electrochemical overall water splitting. Adv. Mater. 2020, 32, 1906915.

21

Hong, W. T.; Risch, M.; Stoerzinger, K. A.; Grimaud, A.; Suntivich, J.; Shao-Horn, Y. Toward the rational design of non-precious transition metal oxides for oxygen electrocatalysis. Energy Environ. Sci. 2015, 8, 1404–1427.

22

Wang, H. F.; Chen, L. Y.; Pang, H.; Kaskel, S.; Xu, Q. MOF-derived electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction, oxygen evolution and hydrogen evolution reactions. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2020, 49, 1414–1448.

23

Wang, Q.; O'Hare, D. Recent advances in the synthesis and application of layered double hydroxide (LDH) nanosheets. Chem. Rev. 2012, 112, 4124–4155.

24

Fan, G. L.; Li, F.; Evans, D. G.; Duan, X. Catalytic applications of layered double hydroxides: recent advances and perspectives. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2014, 43, 7040–7066.

25

Laipan, M. W.; Yu, J. F.; Zhu, R. L.; Zhu, J. X.; Smith, A. T.; He, H. P.; O'Hare, D.; Sun, L. Y. Functionalized layered double hydroxides for innovative applications. Mater. Horiz. 2020, 7, 715–745.

26

Hu, T. T.; Mei, X.; Wang, Y. J.; Weng, X. S.; Liang, R. Z.; Wei, M. Two-dimensional nanomaterials: fascinating materials in biomedical field. Sci. Bull. 2019, 64, 1707–1727.

27

Xie, Q. X.; Cai, Z.; Li, P. S.; Zhou, D. J.; Bi, Y. M.; Xiong, X. Y.; Hu, E. Y.; Li, Y. P.; Kuang, Y.; Sun, X. M. Layered double hydroxides with atomic-scale defects for superior electrocatalysis. Nano Res. 2018, 11, 4524–4534.

28

Song, F.; Hu, X. L. Ultrathin cobalt-manganese layered double hydroxide is an efficient oxygen evolution catalyst. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2014, 136, 16481–16484.

29

Wang, D. W.; Li, Q.; Han, C.; Lu, Q. Q.; Xing, Z. C.; Yang, X. R. Atomic and electronic modulation of self-supported nickel-vanadium layered double hydroxide to accelerate water splitting kinetics. Nat. Commun. 2019, 10, 3899.

30

Song, F.; Hu, X. L. Exfoliation of layered double hydroxides for enhanced oxygen evolution catalysis. Nat. Commun. 2014, 5, 4477.

31

Liang, H. F.; Meng, F.; Cabán-Acevedo, M.; Li, L. S.; Forticaux, A.; Xiu, L. C.; Wang, Z. C.; Jin, S. Hydrothermal continuous flow synthesis and exfoliation of NiCo layered double hydroxide nanosheets for enhanced oxygen evolution catalysis. Nano Lett. 2015, 15, 1421–1427.

32

Zhou, D. J.; Wang, S. Y.; Jia, Y.; Xiong, X. Y.; Yang, H. B.; Liu, S.; Tang, J. L.; Zhang, J. M.; Liu, D.; Zheng, L. R. et al. NiFe hydroxide lattice tensile strain: Enhancement of adsorption of oxygenated intermediates for efficient water oxidation catalysis. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2019, 58, 736–740.

33

Zheng, Z. M.; Lin, L. L.; Mo, S. G.; Ou, D. H.; Tao, J.; Qin, R. X.; Fang, X. L.; Zheng, N. F. Economizing production of diverse 2D layered metal hydroxides for efficient overall water splitting. Small 2018, 14, 1800759.

34

Zou, X. X.; Goswami, A.; Asefa, T. Efficient noble metal-free (electro)catalysis of water and alcohol oxidations by zinc-cobalt layered double hydroxide. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 17242–17245.

35

Sirisomboonchai, S.; Li, S. S.; Yoshida, A.; Li, X. M.; Samart, C.; Abudula, A.; Guan, G. Q. Fabrication of NiO microflake@NiFe-LDH nanosheet heterostructure electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction. ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 2019, 7, 2327–2334.

36

Long, X.; Li, J. K.; Xiao, S.; Yan, K. Y.; Wang, Z. L.; Chen, H. N.; Yang, S. H. A strongly coupled graphene and FeNi double hydroxide hybrid as an excellent electrocatalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2014, 53, 7584–7588.

37

Tang, C.; Wang, H. S.; Wang, H. F.; Zhang, Q.; Tian, G. L.; Nie, J. Q.; Wei, F. Spatially confined hybridization of nanometer-sized NiFe hydroxides into nitrogen-doped graphene frameworks leading to superior oxygen evolution reactivity. Adv. Mater. 2015, 27, 4516–4522.

38

Ma, W.; Ma, R. Z.; Wang, C. X.; Liang, J. B.; Liu, X. H.; Zhou, K. C.; Sasaki, T. A superlattice of alternately stacked Ni-Fe hydroxide nanosheets and graphene for efficient splitting of water. ACS Nano 2015, 9, 1977–1984.

39

Tang, D.; Liu, J.; Wu, X. Y.; Liu, R. H.; Han, X.; Han, Y. Z.; Huang, H.; Liu, Y.; Kang, Z. H. Carbon quantum dot/NiFe layered double- hydroxide composite as a highly efficient electrocatalyst for water oxidation. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces. 2014, 6, 7918–7925.

40

Gong, M.; Li, Y. G.; Wang, H. L.; Liang, Y. Y.; Wu, J. Z.; Zhou, J. G.; Wang, J.; Regier, T.; Wei, F.; Dai, H. J. An advanced Ni-Fe layered double hydroxide electrocatalyst for water oxidation. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 8452–8455.

41

Chen, S.; Duan, J. J.; Jaroniec, M.; Qiao, S. Z. Three-dimensional N-doped graphene hydrogel/NiCo double hydroxide electrocatalysts for highly efficient oxygen evolution. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2013, 52, 13567–13570.

42

Zhang, M.; Zhang, J. T.; Ran, S. Y.; Qiu, L. X.; Sun, W.; Yu, Y.; Chen, J. S.; Zhu, Z. H. A robust bifunctional catalyst for rechargeable Zn-air batteries: Ultrathin NiFe-LDH nanowalls vertically anchored on soybean-derived Fe-N-C matrix. Nano Res. 2021, 14, 1175–1186.

43

Wang, T. J.; Liu, X. Y.; Li, Y.; Li, F. M.; Deng, Z. W.; Chen, Y. Ultrasonication-assisted and gram-scale synthesis of Co-LDH nanosheet aggregates for oxygen evolution reaction. Nano Res. 2020, 13, 79–85.

44

Yan, J.; Fan, Z. J.; Sun, W.; Ning, G. Q.; Wei, T.; Zhang, Q.; Zhang, R. F.; Zhi, L. J.; Wei, F. Advanced asymmetric supercapacitors based on Ni(OH)2/graphene and porous graphene electrodes with high energy density. Adv. Funct. Mater. 2012, 22, 2632–2641.

45

Musielak, M.; Gagor, A.; Zawisza, B.; Talik, E.; Sitko, R. Graphene oxide/carbon nanotube membranes for highly efficient removal of metal ions from water. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2019, 11, 28582– 28590.

46

Zhu, L. L.; Hao, C.; Wang, X. H.; Guo, Y. N. Fluffy cotton-like GO/Zn-Co-Ni layered double hydroxides form from a sacrificed template GO/ZIF-8 for high performance asymmetric supercapacitors. ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 2020, 8, 11618–11629.

47

Chen, H.; Hu, L. F.; Chen, M.; Yan, Y.; Wu, L. M. Nickel-cobalt layered double hydroxide nanosheets for high-performance supercapacitor electrode materials. Adv. Funct. Mater. 2014, 24, 934–942.

48

Ma, T. Y.; Dai, S.; Jaroniec, M.; Qiao, S. Z. Metal-organic framework derived hybrid Co3O4-carbon porous nanowire arrays as reversible oxygen evolution electrodes. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2014, 136, 13925– 13931.

49

Leng, M.; Huang, X. L.; Xiao, W.; Ding, J.; Liu, B. H.; Du, Y. H.; Xue, J. M. Enhanced oxygen evolution reaction by Co-O-C bonds in rationally designed Co3O4/graphene nanocomposites. Nano Energy 2017, 33, 445–452.

50

Liu, H. J.; Zhou, J.; Wu, C. Q.; Wang, C. D.; Zhang, Y. K.; Liu, D. B.; Lin, Y. X.; Jiang, H. L.; Song, L. Integrated flexible electrode for oxygen evolution reaction: Layered double hydroxide coupled with single-walled carbon nanotubes Film. ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 2018, 6, 2911–2915.

51

Gao, M. R.; Sheng, W. C.; Zhuang, Z. B.; Fang, Q. R.; Gu, S.; Jiang, J.; Yan, Y. S. Efficient water oxidation using nanostructured α-Nickel- hydroxide as an electrocatalyst. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2014, 136, 7077–7084.

52

Zhou, D. J.; Cai, Z.; Bi, Y. M.; Tian, W. L.; Luo, M.; Zhang, Q.; Zhang, Q.; Xie, Q. X.; Wang, J. D.; Li, Y. P. et al. Effects of redox- active interlayer anions on the oxygen evolution reactivity of NiFe- layered double hydroxide nanosheets. Nano Res. 2018, 11, 1358–1368.

53

Zhao, A. Q.; Masa, J.; Xia, W.; Maljusch, A.; Willinger, M. G.; Clavel, G.; Xie, K. P.; Schlögl, R.; Schuhmann, W.; Muhler, M. Spinel Mn-Co oxide in N-doped carbon nanotubes as a bifunctional electrocatalyst synthesized by oxidative cutting. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2014, 136, 7551–7554.

54

Ding, D. N.; Shen, K.; Chen, X. D.; Chen, H. R.; Chen, J. Y.; Fan, T.; Wu, R. F.; Li, Y. W. Multi-level architecture optimization of MOF- templated Co-based nanoparticles embedded in hollow N‑Doped carbon polyhedra for efficient OER and ORR. ACS Catal. 2018, 8, 7879–7888.

55

Dai, L.; Qin, Q.; Zhao, X. J.; Xu, C. F.; Hu, C. Y.; Mo, S. G.; Wang, Y. O.; Lin, S. C.; Tang, Z. C.; Zheng, N. F. Electrochemical partial reforming of ethanol into ethyl acetate using ultrathin Co3O4 nanosheets as a highly selective anode catalyst. ACS Cent. Sci. 2016, 2, 538–544.

56

Joo. J.; Kim, T.; Lee, J.; Choi, S. I.; Lee, K. Morphology-controlled metal sulfides and phosphides for electrochemical water splitting. Adv. Mater. 2019, 31, 1806682.

57

Wang, H. Y.; Hsu, Y. Y.; Chen, R.; Chan, T. S.; Chen, H. M.; Liu, B. Ni3+-induced formation of active NiOOH on the spinel Ni-Co oxide surface for efficient oxygen evolution reaction. Adv. Energy Mater. 2015, 5, 1500091.

File
12274_2021_3424_MOESM1_ESM.pdf (2.7 MB)
Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 29 January 2021
Revised: 24 February 2021
Accepted: 24 February 2021
Published: 23 April 2021
Issue date: December 2021

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2021

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Science and Technology Key Project of Guangdong Province of China (No. 2020B010188002), the National Major Science and Technology Program for Water Pollution Control and Treatment of China (No. 2017ZX07202). We sincerely thank the photoemission endstations beamline 1W1B station in Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility (BSRF), BL10B and BL11U in National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (NSRL) in Hefei, China.

Return