Synergistic effect of V and Fe in Ni/Fe/V ternary layered double hydroxides for efficient and durable oxygen evolution reaction

Abstract

High-performance and stable electrocatalysts are vital for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Herein, via a one-pot hydrothermal method, Ni/Fe/V ternary layered double hydroxides (NiFeV-LDH) derived from Ni foam are fabricated to work as highly active and durable electrocatalysts for OER. By changing the feeding ratio of Fe and V salts, the prepared ternary hydroxides were optimized. At an Fe:V ratio of 0.5:0.5, NiFeV-LDH exhibits outstanding OER activity superior to that of the binary hydroxides, requiring overpotentials of 269 and 274 mV at 50 mA·cm^–2 in the linear sweep voltammetry and sampled current voltammetry measurements, respectively. Importantly, NiFeV-LDH shows extraordinary long-term stability (≥ 75 h) at an extremely high current density of 200 mA·cm^–2. In contrast, the binary hydroxides present quick decay at 200 mA·cm^–2 or even reduced current densities (150 and 100 mA·cm^–2). The outstanding OER performance of NiFeV-LDH benefits from the synergistic effect of V and Fe while doping the third metal into bimetallic hydroxide layers: (a) Fe plays a crucial role as the active site; (b) electron-withdrawing V stabilizes the high valence state of Fe, thus accelerating the OER process; (c) V further offers great stabilization for the formed intermediate of FeOOH, thus achieving superior durability.

Key words： oxygen evolution reaction; electrocatalysts; ternary layered double hydroxides; long-term stability

Acknowledgments

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 22176017 and 21871028), CAS “Light of West China Program” (Grant No. XAB2020YW16), Scientific Research Project of the Ningxia Higher Education Department of China (Grant No. NGY2020034), Foundation of State Key Laboratory of High-efficiency Utilization of Coal and Green Chemical Engineering (Grant No. 2020-KF-40).

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11705-022-2179-6 and is accessible for authorized users.

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