In Situ Vertical Growth of Fe–Ni Layered Double-Hydroxide Arrays on Fe–Ni Alloy Foil: Interfacial Layer Enhanced Electrocatalyst with Small Overpotential for Oxygen Evolution Reaction

Layer double hydroxide (LDH) has been widely applied to electrocatalysis, especially toward the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), owing to its flexible layered structure and multifunctionality. Herein, FeNi LDH nanosheet arrays are directly synthesized on various metal foils by a facile hydrothermal method. Compared with single Fe or Ni substrates, the obtained FeNi LDH/FeNi foil exhibited an ultrasmall onset overpotential of ∼90 mV, high catalytic activity (overpotential of 130 mV @ 10 mA/cm2), and durable stability in 0.1 M KOH electrolyte. We also demonstrate, by utilizing density functional theory calculations, that the growth of the hydroxide interfacial layer between LDH and FeNi foil makes the LDH possess more favorable adsorption to the OH intermediate during OER than the pure LDH. This reveals that the vertical FeNi LDH arrays on the FeNi alloy substrate are prone to be an efficient catalyst toward OER.