Nickel foam-supported NiFe layered double hydroxides nanoflakes array as a greatly enhanced electrocatalyst for oxygen evolution reaction

In this work, nickel-iron layered double hydroxides nanoflakes are grown on nickel foam by a facile in-situ complexation precipitation method. The fabricated nickel-iron layered double hydroxides/nickel foam with special 3D structure with large electrochemical activated surface area is proposed as a greatly enhance electrode material for oxygen evolution reaction. The electrochemical properties of the as-fabricated nickel-iron layered double hydroxides/nickel foam electrode are evaluated using 1 mol L−1 KOH as electrolyte. The obtained electrochemical results show that the fabricated nickel-iron layered double hydroxides/nickel foam electrode exhibits a low overpotential of 245 mV at current density of 10 mA cm−2 with small Tafel slope of 27 mV dec−1. Also, it displays a much longer durability of 20 h with very small decay of 0.02% as compared with 3D nickel foam, IrO2 and the related catalysts reported. Therefore, this study indicates that the nickel-iron layered double hydroxides/nickel foam is a promising electrode material for oxygen evolution reaction due to its facile preparation method, low cost and environmentally friendly nature.