Hydrothermal Synthesis of a rGO Nanosheet Enwrapped NiFe Nanoalloy for Superior Electrocatalytic Oxygen Evolution Reactions

Graphene-based hybrid nanostructures possess many advantages in the field of electrochemical energy applications. In this work, a facile and efficient hydrothermal approach has been developed for the preparation of NiFe alloy nanoparticles/rGO hybrid nanostructures, in which the nanoparticles are well combined with rGO nanosheets and the size of the nanoparticles is about 100 nm. Moreover, the electrochemical oxygen evolution reaction (OER) tests confirmed that the obtained NiFe/rGO hybrid nanostructures possess notably higher activity than both the rGO-free NiFe nanoparticles and pure Ni/rGO hybrids, and the optimal NiFe ratio is 2:1. The OER overpotential at 20 mA cm(-1-2) with Ni2 Fe/rGO is as low as 0.285 V, which is 96 mV lower than that of pure Ni/rGO hybrids. Meanwhile, the Ni2 Fe/rGO catalyst has excellent stability. Therefore, this work contributes a facile and efficient method to prepare a NiFe alloy nanoparticles/rGO hybrid structure for potential applications in the field of electrochemical energy devices, such as electrochemical water splitting cells, rechargeable metal/air batteries, etc.