One-pot synthesis of NiFe layered double hydroxide/reduced graphene oxide composite as an efficient electrocatalyst for electrochemical and photoelectrochemical water oxidation

Abstract

As an efficient non-precious metal catalyst for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in electrochemical and photoelectrochemical water splitting, NiFe layered double hydroxide (LDH)/reduced graphene oxide (NiFe/RGO) composite is synthesized by a simple solvothermal method in one-pot. NiFe LDHs are uniformly deposited on RGO layers of high electrical conductivity and large surface area. In electrochemical water splitting, NiFe/RGO shows superior OER performance compared to bare NiFe and reference IrO2 with a lower benchmark η10 value (required overpotential to drive 10 mA cm-2) of 0.245 V. Furthermore, NiFe/RGO substantially increases the performance of a hematite photoanode in photoelectrochemical water oxidation, demonstrating its potential as an OER co-catalyst for photoelectrodes.