Self-adaption of Zn introduced Ni-Fe layered double hydroxide for efficient and durable oxygen evolution reaction electrocatalysis

• 19 kinds of adhesive- and carbon-free NiFe-x, NiFeM-4, and NiFeZn-x were studied comprehensively. • The Zn 2+ shows the best role in surface electronic structure and vacancy defect modification providing an ideal platform for OER. • The NiFeZn-4 undergoes an adaptive process that helps optimize the impedance and induced an OER durability enhancement (∼3.3%). • The optimized NiFeZn-4 showed extremely low overpotential (204 mV@10 mA cm -2 ) and TOF (0.572 s -1 ) NiFe-based layer double hydroxides (NiFe-LDHs) have been widely considered to boost oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in alkaline solutions owing to their flexible layered structure and multi-functionality. We report on a class of M (M=Zn, Cu, Al, Cr, and Mn) introduced NiFe-x (x=2-8) to further enhance the OER performance. The introducing element M is believed to play a decisive role in promoting the OER performance of NiFeM-4. As a result, the NiFeZn-4 exhibits low OER overpotential (204 mV to reach @10 mA cm -2 ) and turnover frequency (TOF, 0.572 s -1 ), respectively. Meanwhile, with the surface composition tuning, the obtained NiFeZn-4 appeared to underlie the high endurance of NiFeM-4, which can undergo 56 hours i-t test with negligible activity loss and no apparent micromorphology and composition changes. Under long-term operation and periodic accelerated LSV tests, the NiFeZn-4 undergoes an adaptive process that helps optimize the impedance and introduced an OER durability enhancement (∼3.3%).