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Ultrathin Spinel‐Structured Nanosheets Rich in Oxygen Deficiencies for Enhanced Electrocatalytic Water Oxidation
Author(s) -
Bao Jian,
Zhang Xiaodong,
Fan Bo,
Zhang Jiajia,
Zhou Min,
Yang Wenlong,
Hu Xin,
Wang Hui,
Pan Bicai,
Xie Yi
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/anie.201502226
Subject(s) - overpotential , oxygen evolution , spinel , nanosheet , catalysis , water splitting , oxygen , chemical engineering , materials science , electrochemistry , inorganic chemistry , nanotechnology , chemistry , electrode , metallurgy , biochemistry , organic chemistry , photocatalysis , engineering
Electrochemical water splitting is a clean technology for H 2 fuels, but greatly hindered by the slow kinetics of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Herein, a series of spinel‐structured nanosheets with oxygen deficiencies and ultrathin thicknesses were designed to increase the reactivity and the number of active sites of the catalysts, which were then taken as an excellent platform for promoting the water oxidation process. Theoretical investigations showed that the oxygen vacancies confined in the ultrathin nanosheet could lower the adsorption energy of H 2 O, leading to increased OER efficiency. As expected, the NiCo 2 O 4 ultrathin nanosheets rich in oxygen vacancies exhibited a large current density of 285 mA cm −2 at 0.8 V and a small overpotential of 0.32 V, both of which are superior to the corresponding values of bulk samples or samples with few oxygen deficiencies and even higher than those of most reported non‐precious‐metal catalysts. This work should provide a new pathway for the design of advanced OER catalysts.