Fe incorporated α-Co(OH)2 nanosheets with remarkably improved activity towards the oxygen evolution reaction

Cost-effective and highly active electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are critical to energy conversion and storage processes. Herein, a superior OER catalyst of Fe substituted alpha-Co(OH)(2) (alpha-Co1-mFem(OH)(2)) has been synthesized by taking advantage of the large layered structure and good conductivity of alpha-Co(OH)(2), in conjunction with the rich redox properties and abundance of Fe. The atomically layered alpha-Co4Fe(OH)(x) (Co/Fe=4) nanoplates could effectively catalyze water oxidation at the onset potential of 0.26 V and its turnover frequency (TOF) was 11 and 5 times higher than those of aCo( OH)(2) and IrO2, respectively. The increased activity could be attributed to strong electronic interactions between Co and Fe. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations also demonstrated that the theoretical overpotential of alpha-Co1-mFem(OH)(2) is obviously lower than that of alpha-Co(OH)(2) and thus Fe doped alpha-Co(OH)(2) displays a better activity. Moreover, the correlation between the Fe content and activity could be plotted as a volcano curve.