Interfacial amine-assisted electrodeposition of superhydrophilic/superaerophobic metal hydroxides for robust oxygen evolution catalysis
摘要
The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is crucial for the electrocatalytic water electrolysis into oxygen and hydrogen, but the four-electron transfer process hinders the OER dynamics. To realize the highly efficient water splitting, the nonprecious metal-based electrodes that can optimize the adsorption energy of intermediates and generate H2 with low overpotential and robust stability are essential. Herein, we report a surface modification strategy to grow the trimetallic FeCoNi hydroxide on the amine linkers-grafted carbon cloth (CC-NH2@FeCoNi) by electro-deposition. CC-NH2@FeCoNi possesses a superhydrophilic/superaerophobic surface, which could significantly enhance the mass transfer, and meanwhile promote the in situ generation of MOOH active species. Meanwhile, the superhydrophilic surface could facilitate the adsorption of abundant OH− ions, and repel the Cl− ions via electrostatic repulsive force during seawater oxidation. Consequently, compared with the CC@FeCoNi that grown on the pure CC (320 mV), the CC-NH2@FeCoNi needs an obviously smaller overpotential of 270 mV to achieve a current density of 100 mA cm−2, and meanwhile it exhibits a superior durability for 100 h at a current density of 200 mA cm−2 in both alkaline water and seawater. This strategy could be even applied universally in the preparation of other nonprecious metal hydroxides for efficient OER catalysis.