Effect of the Precursor Metal Salt on the Oxygen Evolution Reaction for NiFe Oxide Materials

Bimetallic nickel-iron based oxides are regarded as one of the most promising catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). In this study, we show that the precursor metal salts can affect the OER activity of the resulting Ni/Fe oxide under the same hydrothermal synthesis conditions. Pure sulfate, pure nitrate and mixed sulfate/nitrate metal salts were used to fabricate NiFe based oxide materials and to study the importance of the precursor choice for the OER. The results show that the nature of the precursor used in the synthesis of the bimetallic nickel-iron materials can influence different multi-phase catalysts to form which effects the OER. The synthesis of NiFe oxide is sensible to the choice of the precursor. The secondary phases favored by the precursor metal salt can affect the resulting oxygen evolution reaction performance. More specifically, Fe2O3 and single-phase nickel-based materials, seem to be the hindering source of the NiFe Layered Double Hydroxide (LDH) oxygen evolution reaction activity. image