A Mo-guided self-reconstructed highly active NiOOH catalyst for a durable alkaline oxygen evolution reaction

Abstract

Alkaline water electrolysis (AWE) is vital for green hydrogen production but suffers from sluggish oxygen evolution reaction (OER) kinetics and poor electrode stability. Here, a facile and feasible Mo-guided self-reconstruction strategy was developed to construct an outstanding pure nickel-based OER electrocatalyst (γ-NiOOH_Mo-SR/NF). Benefiting from the in situ generated abundant high-valent Ni sites and interfacial hydrogen-bonding network, γ-NiOOH_Mo-SR/NF exhibited excellent OER activity and impressive long-term stability over 1100 h at 1.0 A cm⁻², even exceeding 100 h at 3.0 A cm⁻², outperforming most reported non-precious metal catalysts. In situ spectroscopic studies confirmed that the interfacial hydrogen-bonding network promoted OH⁻ transport and suppressed local acidification, thereby endowing γ-NiOOH_Mo-SR/NF with superior OER performance. The present work is instructive for designing highly efficient Ni-based OER electrocatalysts.