Ni Foam-Supported Fe-Doped β-Ni(OH)2 Nanosheets Show Ultralow Overpotential for Oxygen Evolution Reaction

Oxygen evolution reaction (OER) involves multiple electron-transfer processes, resulting in a high activation barrier. Developing catalysts with low overpotential and high intrinsic activity toward OER is critical but challenging. Here we report a major advancement in decreasing the overpotential for oxygen evolution reaction. Ni foam-supported Fe-doped beta-Ni(OH)(2) nano sheets achieve an overpotential of 219 mV at the geometric current density of 10 mA cm(-2). To our knowledge, this is the best value reported for Ni- or Fe hydroxide-based OER catalysts. In addition, the catalyst yields a current density of 6.25 mA cm(-2) at the overpotential of 300 mV when it is normalized to the electro-chemical surface area of the catalyst. This intrinsic catalytic activity is also better than the values reported for most state-of-the-art OER catalysts at the same overpotential.