CeOx-Decorated NiFe-Layered Double Hydroxide for Efficient Alkaline Hydrogen Evolution by Oxygen Vacancy Engineering

As a promising bifunctional electrocatalyst for water splitting, NiFe-layered double hydroxide (NiFe LDH) demonstrates an excellent activity toward oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in alkaline solution. However, its hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity is challenged owing to the poor electronic conductivity and insufficient electrochemical active sites. Therefore, a three-dimensional self-supporting metal hydroxide/oxide electrode with abundant oxygen vacancies is prepared by electrodepositing CeOx nanoparticles on NiFe LDH nanosheets. According to the density functional theory calculations and experimental studies, the oxygen vacancies at the NiFe LDH/CeOx interface can be introduced successfully because of the positive charges accumulation resulting from the local electron potential difference between NiFe LDH and CeOx. The oxygen vacancies accelerate the electron/ion migration rates, facilitate the charge transfer, and increase the electrochemical active sites, which give rise to an efficient activity toward HER in alkaline solution. Furthermore, NF@NiFe LDH/CeOx needs a lower potential of 1.51 V to drive a current density of 10 mA cm–2 in overall water splitting and demonstrates a superior performance compared with the benchmark Pt/C and RuO2, which is indicated to be a promising bifunctional electrode catalyst.