Activating Commercial Nickel Foam to a Highly Efficient Electrocatalyst for Oxygen Evolution Reaction through a Three-Step Surface Reconstruction

It is highly desired to directly use commercial nickel foam (CNF) as an electrocatalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) via simple surface reconstruction. In our research, a simple three-step preactivation process was proposed to reconstruct CNF as an efficient OER catalyst, including calcination, high-voltage treatment, and immersing in electrolyte. The optimal CNF after three-step activation reaches an excellent OER performance of 228 and 267 mV at eta(10) and eta(100) in alkaline media and can tolerate long-term tests under a large current density of 500 mA center dot cm(-2). The promotion of each step was explored. The calcination step leads to a reconstructive surficial morphology with an enlarged active surface, providing a prerequisite for the following construction steps. The high-voltage treatment changes the valence of surface Ni species, generating phases with higher catalytic activity, and the immersing process introduces Fe heteroatoms into the surface of CNF, boosting the catalytic performance of CNF through Ni-Fe interactions. This research provides a simple method of making high-performance catalysts with accessible nickel foam, a potential for large-scale application in practical industry, and new thinking for the manipulation of Ni-based catalysts.

Automated summary

In this research, a three-step preactivation process was proposed to reconstruct commercial nickel foam (CNF) as an efficient electrocatalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The activated CNF showed excellent OER performance in alkaline media and could tolerate long-term tests under a large current density. The calcination step led to a reconstructive surface morphology, the high-voltage treatment changed the valence of surface Ni species, and the immersion process introduced Fe heteroatoms into the CNF surface, all contributing to the improved catalytic performance.