Ultrathin NiFeS nanosheets as highly active electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction

The development of efficient and cost-effective oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalysts is crucial for clean energy conversion and storage devices, such as water-splitting, CO2 reduction, and metal-air batteries. Herein, we report an efficient 2-dimensional OER catalyst of ultrathin nickel-iron sulfide nanosheets (NiFeS-NS). Dodecanethiol is employed in the synthesis, which prohibits the growth along the Z-axis, thus a nanosheet is obtained. The NiFeS-NS shows high OER catalytic activity, which only requires a small overpotential of 273 mV to achieve the OER current density of 10 mA/cm(2) in alkaline electrolyte, and almost no decay after 150 h of chronopotentiometry test. The high performance is attributed to the 2-dimensional structure, the synergistic effect from the Ni and Fe components which promotes the formation of the high valence Ni species, and the tuning effect from the in-situ generated sulfate doping. This work demonstrates the advantages of the 2-dimensional sulfides in electrocatalysis. (C) 2022 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Chinese Chemical Society and Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.

Automated summary

This study reports an efficient 2-dimensional oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalyst consisting of ultrathin nickel-iron sulfide nanosheets. The catalyst shows high OER catalytic activity in alkaline electrolyte, requiring only a small overpotential to achieve high OER current density, and exhibits almost no decay after long-term testing. The high performance is attributed to the 2-dimensional structure, synergistic effect from the nickel and iron components, and tuning effect from in-situ generated sulfate doping.