Sulfur-incorporated nickel-iron layered double hydroxides for effective oxygen evolution reaction in seawater

Given the abundance of water on the surface of the Earth, water splitting using seawater may be an effective solution to the future energy crisis. However, oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalysts require several specific characteristics to be used in seawater electrolysis, such as high catalytic activity, selectivity, and resistivity against chlorine corrosion. This paper reports that sulfur incorporation into nickel–iron layered double hydroxide (NiFe-LDH-S) can fulfill the abovementioned requirements for seawater oxidation. Sulfidation was performed on NiFe-LDH nanosheets homogeneously grown on a porous carbon scaffold via a facile chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process. The best NiFe-LDH-S sample demonstrated excellent catalytic activity with a high corrosion resistance for seawater oxidation.