High-efficient
electrocatalysts are crucial for fuel cell applications; however,
the whole cell performance is generally restricted by the anodic part
because of the sluggish kinetics involved in the oxygen evolution
reaction (OER) process. Herein, a hierarchical hollow (Co,Ni)Se2@NiFe layered double hydroxide (LDH) nanocage was synthesized
by deriving from the metal–organic framework (MOF) of ZIF-67.
Concretely, it involves first fabrication of hollow rhombic (Co,Ni)Se2 nanocages and then deposition of NiFe LDH nanosheets on the
surface of nanocages. Notably, the incorporation of Ni into Co-based
ZIF-67 (via ion-exchange) could tail the atomic arrangement of the
MOF, exposing more additional active sites in the following selenization
treatment. The as-synthesized (Co,Ni)Se2@NiFe LDH demonstrates
splendid OER performance with a small overpotential of 277 mV (to
launch a current density of 10 mA cm–2), a small
Tafel slope of 75 mV dec–1, and robust durability
(a slight stability decay of 5.1% after 17 h of continuous test),
not only surpassing the commercial RuO2 but also being
comparable/superior to most reported nonprevious metal-based catalysts.
Upon analysis, the outstanding OER performance is attributed to the
optimized adsorption/desorption nature of iron and nickel/cobalt toward
the oxygenated species and partial delocalization of spin status at
the interface via the bridging O2–. This work represents
a solid step toward exploration of advanced catalysts with deliberate
experimental design and/or atom tailoring.
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