Anion insertion enhanced electrodeposition of robust metal hydroxide/oxide electrodes for oxygen evolution.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 29915288.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-018-04788-3 and PMC identifier 6006371.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Electrochemical deposition is a facile strategy to prepare functional materials but suffers from limitation in thin films and uncontrollable interface engineering. Here we report a universal electrosynthesis of metal hydroxides/oxides on varied substrates via reduction of oxyacid anions. On graphitic substrates, we find that the insertion of nitrate ion in graphene layers significantly enhances the electrodeposit-support interface, resulting in high mass loading and super hydrophilic/aerophobic properties. For the electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction, the nanocrystalline cerium dioxide and amorphous nickel hydroxide co-electrodeposited on graphite exhibits low overpotential (177 mV@10 mA cm-2) and sustains long-term durability (over 300 h) at a large current density of 1000 mA cm-2. In situ Raman and operando X-ray diffraction unravel that the integration of cerium promotes the formation of electrocatalytically active gamma-phase nickel oxyhydroxide with exposed (003) facets. Therefore, combining anion intercalation with cathodic electrodeposition allows building robust electrodes with high electrochemical performance.