Issue 29, 2016

Layer-by-layer assembly of exfoliated layered double hydroxide nanosheets for enhanced electrochemical oxidation of water

Abstract

How to develop cost-effective electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is one of the critical issues in renewable energy storage and conversion technology. Here, we report the preparation of well-ordered ultrathin film (UTF) electrodes based on layered double hydroxide nanosheets (LDH NSs) and iron porphyrin (Fe-PP) through an electrostatic layer-by-layer (LBL) technique, which show excellent OER performance. By virtue of the high catalytic activity of LDH NSs and good electron-transfer ability of Fe-PP, the resulting CoNi-LDH NS/Fe-PP UTF exhibits a remarkably low overpotential (264 mV) to attain an OER current density of 10 mA cm−2 and a substantially decreased Tafel slope of 37.6 mV dec−1, much superior to that of the IrO2 catalyst. Moreover, this method can be extended to the preparation of other UTFs based on LDHs and Fe-PP (e.g., CoMn-LDH NS/Fe-PP, CoFe-LDH NS/Fe-PP and ZnCo-LDH NS/Fe-PP) with significantly enhanced OER performance relative to pristine LDH NSs. To illustrate the advantage of these UTFs in practical water splitting, a prototype electrolyzer cell is also fabricated by using the (CoNi-LDH/Fe-PP)30 UTF as the anode and Pt wire as the cathode, which achieves the production of both oxygen and hydrogen by using a 1.5 V AA battery as the power source.

Graphical abstract: Layer-by-layer assembly of exfoliated layered double hydroxide nanosheets for enhanced electrochemical oxidation of water

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
26 Mar 2016
Accepted
28 Jun 2016
First published
29 Jun 2016

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2016,4, 11516-11523

Layer-by-layer assembly of exfoliated layered double hydroxide nanosheets for enhanced electrochemical oxidation of water

C. Zhang, J. Zhao, L. Zhou, Z. Li, M. Shao and M. Wei, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2016, 4, 11516 DOI: 10.1039/C6TA02537D

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