In situgrowth of Fe and Nb co-doped β-Ni(OH)2nanosheet arrays on nickel foam for an efficient oxygen evolution reaction

Developing highly efficient, Earth-abundant, and long-term stable electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is of great importance for realizing industrial hydrogen generation from water splitting. Herein, a series of novel Fe and Nb co-doped beta-Ni(OH)(2)nanosheet arrays were successfully grownin situon Ni foamviaa chlorine etching method. The representative NiFe3Nb2-OH displayed outstanding OER performance with an overpotential of 294 mV to deliver 100 mA cm(-2)in an alkaline electrolyte, outperforming other Ni related electrocatalysts. NiFe3Nb2-OH exhibited a stability of 90 h without obvious potential change at 50 mA cm(-2). Significantly, the doped Fe and Nb effectively enhanced the electrochemical active area and electronic transfer capability of beta-Ni(OH)(2). Density functional theory (DFT) calculations indicated that the Gibbs free energy of the OER intermediates on the Fe, Nb co-doped beta-Ni(OH)(2)electrode was optimized. The tuned electronic interactions between Fe, Nb and Ni apparently boosted the OER performance of NiFe3Nb2-OH. These results demonstrated that Fe and Nb co-doped beta-Ni(OH)(2)is a highly efficient OER electrocatalyst in alkaline media.