Hierarchically devising NiFeOxHy catalyst with surface Fe active sites for efficient oxygen evolution reaction.

[Display omitted] • Hierarchically devised NiFeO x H y catalyst showed high OER activity under alkaline condition. • NiFeO x H y /Ni heterostructure was in-situ formed via a surface reconstruction process. • Charge transfer at the catalyst-electrolyte interface was improved with Fe incorporation into Ni (oxy)hydroxide. • Fe species located at the outer surface of NiOOH structure served as the OER active site. Nickel iron (oxy)hydroxide (NiFeO x H y) is among the most active electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in the alkaline media. Development of new design strategy for NiFeO x H y electrode with respect to intrinsic activity and number of active species is highly attractive. Here we report a hierarchical fabrication for NiFeO x H y electrode towards efficient oxygen evolution. Three-dimensional mesoporous NiO was initially prepared and reduced to a polycrystalline Ni metal framework. Despite the poor OER activity for Ni-based catalyst, the incorporation of surface Fe species induced a notably high current density for the oxygen evolution. The results indicated that the Fe species, located at outer surface region, played a key role as the OER active sites. It is also found that the surface of metallic Ni was reconstructed to (oxy)hydroxide phase with ease compared to NiO. As a result, a heterostructure composed of an OER-active NiFe (oxy)hydroxide shell and an electron-conductive Ni core was formed. In this fabricated NiFeO x H y /Ni catalyst, the promoted intrinsic activity, number of active sites and charge-transfer ability all taken into account contribute to an efficient OER process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]