Achieving High‐Performance Electrocatalytic Water Oxidation on Ni(OH)2 with Optimized Intermediate Binding Energy Enabled by S‐Doping and CeO2‐Interfacing

Abstract

AbstractThe adsorption energy of the reaction intermediates has a crucial influence on the electrocatalytic activity. Ni‐based materials possess high oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performance in alkaline, however too strong binding of *OH and high energy barrier of the rate‐determining step (RDS) severely limit their OER activity. Herein, a facile strategy is shown to fabricate novel vertical nanorod‐like arrays hybrid structure with the interface contact of S‐doped Ni(OH)2 and CeO2 in situ grown on Ni foam (S‐Ni(OH)2/CeO2/NF) through a one‐pot route. The alcohol molecules oxidation reaction experiments and theoretical calculations demonstrate that S‐doping and CeO2‐interfacing significantly modulate the binding energies of OER intermediates toward optimal value and reduce the energy barrier of the RDS, contributing to remarkable OER activity for S‐Ni(OH)2/CeO2/NF with an ultralow overpotential of 196 mV at 10 mA cm−2 and long‐term durability over 150 h for the OER. This work offers an efficient doping and interfacing strategy to tune the binding energy of the OER intermediates for obtaining high‐performance electrocatalysts.