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Interlayer ligand engineering of β-Ni(OH)2 for oxygen evolution reaction

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Abstract

Oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is a bottleneck process for many electrochemical devices due to the sluggish kinetics, for which advanced electrocatalysts should be carefully designed. Nickle-based materials have been extensively studied to catalyze OER. However, their performances are still below the expectation and the active sites are often controversial. Herein, we have successfully modulated the electronic and surface properties of layered •-Ni(OH)2 by the interlayer ligand engineering, aiming to design novel efficient electrocatalysts and unveil the catalysis mechanism. By one-step solvothermal reaction, alkoxyl substituted •-Ni(OH)2 with variable interlayer distances is obtained, and the ethoxyl substituted one (NiEt) shows great potential for efficient OER. With the assistance of powder X-ray diffraction and crystalline structure computational simulation, the formula of alkoxyl substituted •-Ni(OH)2 are determined. Operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy studies combined with ex-situ analyses revealed that the critical active species of NiEt is formed via hydroxylation and subsequent de-protonation, with high valent Niδ+ (3<δ≤3.66). The corresponding catalytic reaction pathway and mechanism are proposed.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (531107051102), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51402100, 21825201, 21573066, 21805080, 21902047) and the Provincial Natural Science Foundation of Hunan (2016TP1009, 2020JJ5045).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Chem/Bio-Sensing and Chemometrics, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China

    Junying He, Yuqin Zou, Chenhui Li, Yanbo Liu, Ling Zhou & Shuangyin Wang

  2. Department of Physics, Tamkang University, New Taipei City, 25137, China

    Yucheng Huang & Chung-Li Dong

  3. School of Materials, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China

    Xia Lu

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  1. Junying He
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  2. Yuqin Zou
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  3. Yucheng Huang
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  4. Chenhui Li
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  5. Yanbo Liu
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  6. Ling Zhou
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  8. Xia Lu
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  9. Shuangyin Wang
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Correspondence to Yuqin Zou or Xia Lu.

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He, J., Zou, Y., Huang, Y. et al. Interlayer ligand engineering of β-Ni(OH)2 for oxygen evolution reaction. Sci. China Chem. 63, 1684–1693 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-020-9844-2

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