Core-shell nanoarray structured La doped Cu(OH)2@NiCo layered double hydroxide for oxygen evolution reaction

Efficient hydrogen production via water splitting is significant because of the zero-carbon emission property. Developing low-cost and highly efficient electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), a key half-reaction of water splitting, is critical. Herein, we designed Cu(OH)2@NiCo layered double hydroxide core-shell nanoarray supported on copper foam (CF) with different La doping amount (abbreviated as Cu(OH)2@NiCoLa LDH/CF) via the facile electrodeposition method. Owing to the synergistic effect between La and NiCo LDH by electronic structure tuning, Cu(OH)2@NiCoLa LDH/CF shows excellent OER performance with the lowest overpotential of 254 mV to drive the current density of 10 mA cm−2 and outstanding long-term durability for 24 h. The idea of doping rare-earth metal into non-noble NiCo-based LDHs core-shell nanoarray structure in this work can inspire the design of other efficient electrocatalysts.