Nickel–Vanadium Layered Double Hydroxide under Water-Oxidation Reaction: New Findings and Challenges

Nickel–vanadium layered double hydroxide has recently been considered as a highly active, low-cost electrocatalyst and as a benchmark non-noble metal-based electrocatalyst for water oxidation. The material showed a current density of 27 mA/cm2 at an overpotential of 350 mV, which is comparable to the best-performing nickel–iron-layered double hydroxides for water oxidation in alkaline media. The enhanced conductivity and facile electron transfer were suggested among important factors for the high activity of nickel–vanadium layered double hydroxide. In the present study, the stability of an Ni–V catalyst was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES), extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS), and electrochemical characterization methods. These methods show that the initial Ni–V catalyst during water oxidation in alkaline conditions is converted from an initial α-Ni(OH)2 phase to a partially oxidized α-Ni(OH)2/NiOOH phase and VO43– ions. We carefully evaluate the stability of the catalysts and analyze the compositional changes during prolonged water-oxidation conditions using inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). The experiments using both Fe-free electrolyte and Fe-free nickel–vanadium layered double hydroxide reveal that vanadium do not affect the water-oxidizing activity of α-Ni(OH)2.