Abstract
The design and development of highly efficient electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are critical for renewable energy generation. Ni-based electrocatalysts are widely used in the water electrolysis process. In this work, heterostructure consisting of selenides and layered double hydroxides (LDH) named (Co, Ni)Se(4)@NiFe-LDH, are prepared by an LDH-based strategy, in which the electronic structure of Ni active sites is regulated by interfacial electron interaction. The (Co, Ni)Se(4)@NiFe-LDH shows an optimized charge distribution of Ni sites and excellent catalytic activity. The effective charge modulation results in lowering the energy barrier of OOH* intermediate formation and adequate adsorption strength of the intermediates on Ni-active sites, which improves the kinetics of OER. Specifically, the (Co, Ni)Se(4)@NiFe-LDH only requires an overpotential of 237 mV to reach the current density of 10 mA cm(-2) under alkaline conditions. The results of this work demonstrate that reasonable engineering of heterostructure is an effective strategy to improve the intrinsic property of OER electrocatalysts for water splitting.