Interface engineering of heterostructured NiSn@NiMn–LDH as a bifunctional electrocatalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction and hydrogen evolution reaction

Abstract

The development of highly effective and stable bifunctional electrocatalysts is crucial for achieving industrial green hydrogen generation in the water splitting field. Herein, a NiSn@NiMn–LDH heterostructured electrocatalyst based on interface engineering was fabricated by a two-step hydrothermal technique with Ti mesh (TM) as the SI. The NiSn@NiMn–LDH/TM heterostructured electrocatalyst exhibited excellent electrocatalytic activity in an alkaline electrolyte with the small overpotentials of 300.2 mV at 10 mA cm⁻² and 202.6 mV at 10 mA cm⁻² for the OER and HER, respectively. Moreover, there was no significant increase/decrease in the potential after a 50 h stability experiment at 30 mA cm⁻² toward the OER and HER, indicating that NiSn@NiMn–LDH/TM possessed outstanding catalytic stability as a bifunctional electrocatalyst. The exceptional electrocatalytic properties were caused by the electronic transformation at the interface between NiSn and NiMn–LDH, which originated from the generation of a heterogeneous structure, as well as the optimization of the interfacial electronic structure. The work can be reasonably used for the design and development of transition metal-based electrocatalysts, realizing the industrial application of hydrogen generation by water splitting.