Facile preparation of hierarchical Ni@Mn-doped NiO hybrids for efficient and durable oxygen evolution reaction

Exploring highly efficient and non-noble-metal-based electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is of great importance not only for water splitting but also for rechargeable metal-air batteries and fuel cells. Herein, we describe a simple strategy to prepare hierarchical Ni@Mn-doped NiO hybrids using flower-like Ni-Mn layered double hydroxides (NiMn-LDHs) as a precursor. After calcination at 400 °C for an hour under N2 atmosphere, the flower-like NiMn-LDHs transform to porous microspheres consisting of nanoparticles, in which Ni cores are encapsulated by Mn-doped NiO shells (denoted as Ni@Mn-NiO-400). Benefiting to this unique porous, core-shell structures and element doping, the as-prepared Ni@Mn-NiO-400 hybrid shows a low overpotential of 178 mV at the current density of 10 mA/cm2 and Tafel slope of 52.7 mV/dec in 1 mol/L KOH solution. More significantly, the Ni@Mn-NiO-400 hybrid also demonstrates superior stability of 98.6% after 50 h continuously testing, much higher than pristine NiMn-LDHs and commercial IrO2 catalyst. In addition, theoretical simulation shows that Ni core and Mn doping greatly affect the electronic states and electronic structure of NiO. As a result, Ni@Mn-doped NiO hybrid possesses an optimal adsorption activity towards oxygen species than NiO and undoped Ni@NiO hybrid. Considering the compositional and structural flexibility of LDHs, this work may offer a simple method to prepare other non-noble metal-based electrocatalysts for OER.