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As the main limiting step of overall water splitting, oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is urgent to be enhanced by developing efficient catalysts to promote the process of electrolytic water. Based on theoretical analysis, the Ni-metal-organic framework (Ni-MOF) and NiFe-layered double hydroxide (NiFe-LDH) (NiFe-LDH/MOF) heterostructure can optimize the energy barrier of the OER process and decrease the adsorption energy of oxygen-containing intermediates, effectively accelerating the OER kinetics. Accordingly, layered NiFe-LDH/MOF heterostructures are in situ constructed through a facile two-step reaction process, with substantial oxygen defects and lattice defects that further improve the catalytic performance. As a result, only 208 and 275 mV OER overpotentials are needed for NiFe-LDH/MOF to drive the current densities of 20 and 100 mA·cm−2 in 1 M KOH solutions, and even maintain catalytic stability of 100 h at 20 mA·cm−2. When applied to seawater oxidation, only 235 and 307 mV OER overpotentials are required to achieve the current densities of 20 and 100 mA·cm−2, respectively, with almost no attenuation for 100 h stability test at 20 mA·cm−2, all better than commercial RuO2. This work provides the theoretical and experimental basis and a new idea for efficiently driving fresh water and seawater cracking by heterostructure and defect coupling design toward catalysts.


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In situ generated layered NiFe-LDH/MOF heterostructure nanosheet arrays with abundant defects for efficient alkaline and seawater oxidation

Show Author's information Manjie Xiao1,2Can Wu3Jiawei Zhu1Chengtian Zhang1Yan Li1Jiahui Lyu1Weihao Zeng1Haiwen Li4Lei Chen1Shichun Mu1,2( )
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
Foshan Xianhu Laboratory, Foshan 528200, China
Science and Technology Institute of Advanced Technology, Wuhan 430051, China
Hefei General Machinery Research Institute, Hefei 230031, China

Abstract

As the main limiting step of overall water splitting, oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is urgent to be enhanced by developing efficient catalysts to promote the process of electrolytic water. Based on theoretical analysis, the Ni-metal-organic framework (Ni-MOF) and NiFe-layered double hydroxide (NiFe-LDH) (NiFe-LDH/MOF) heterostructure can optimize the energy barrier of the OER process and decrease the adsorption energy of oxygen-containing intermediates, effectively accelerating the OER kinetics. Accordingly, layered NiFe-LDH/MOF heterostructures are in situ constructed through a facile two-step reaction process, with substantial oxygen defects and lattice defects that further improve the catalytic performance. As a result, only 208 and 275 mV OER overpotentials are needed for NiFe-LDH/MOF to drive the current densities of 20 and 100 mA·cm−2 in 1 M KOH solutions, and even maintain catalytic stability of 100 h at 20 mA·cm−2. When applied to seawater oxidation, only 235 and 307 mV OER overpotentials are required to achieve the current densities of 20 and 100 mA·cm−2, respectively, with almost no attenuation for 100 h stability test at 20 mA·cm−2, all better than commercial RuO2. This work provides the theoretical and experimental basis and a new idea for efficiently driving fresh water and seawater cracking by heterostructure and defect coupling design toward catalysts.

Keywords: defects, catalyst, oxygen evolution reaction, seawater electrolysis

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 08 January 2023
Revised: 13 February 2023
Accepted: 22 February 2023
Published: 26 April 2023
Issue date: July 2023

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© Tsinghua University Press 2023

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 22075223) and the State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing (Wuhan University of Technology) (No. 2022-ZD-4).

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