Transition metal (TM) basic salts have been recognized as high-efficiency catalysts for electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction (OER), which is of great importance for producing clean hydrogen energy. Herein, novel OER electrocatalyst consisting of iron oxyhydroxide/nickel sulfate hydroxide nanobelts loaded on nickel foam (FeOOH/NiSH/NF) is reported, synthesized via a facile solvothermal-hydrolysis method. Impressively, the optimized FeOOH/NiSH/NF catalyst exhibits outstanding performance, requiring only a low overpotential of 265 mV to drive a current density of 50 mA·cm⁻² for OER in alkaline media. Structure evolution of the catalysts under the OER process has been investigated through multiple characterization methods, and SO₄²⁻ adsorbed FeOOH/NiOOH is demonstrated to be the true active species. The essential role of incorporated FeOOH has been further elucidated by using density functional theory (DFT) calculations. This work not only reports a novel NiSH-based catalyst towards OER, but also provides insights for understanding the structure–property of TM basic salt-based hybrid OER catalysts.

Graphic abstract

中文翻译：

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羟基氧化铁/氢氧化硫酸镍杂化电催化剂的构建用于高效析氧

过渡金属（TM）碱式盐被认为是电催化析氧反应（OER）的高效催化剂，对于生产清洁氢能源具有重要意义。在此，报道了由负载在泡沫镍（FeOOH/NiSH/NF）上的羟基氧化铁/氢氧化硫酸镍纳米带组成的新型OER电催化剂，通过简单的溶剂热水解方法合成。令人印象深刻的是，优化的 FeOOH/NiSH/NF 催化剂表现出出色的性能，仅需要 265 mV 的低过电势即可在碱性介质中驱动 OER 的电流密度为 50 mA·cm ⁻² 。通过多种表征方法研究了 OER 过程中催化剂的结构演变，并证明 SO ₄ ²⁻ 吸附的 FeOOH/NiOOH 是真正的活性物质。通过使用密度泛函理论 (DFT) 计算，已进一步阐明了掺入的 FeOOH 的重要作用。这项工作不仅报道了一种新型的基于 NiSH 的 OER 催化剂，而且还为理解 TM 碱性盐基混合 OER 催化剂的结构-性能提供了见解。

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