Cerium doped amorphous Ni(OH)x on Cu(OH)2 nanorods for enhanced oxygen evolution reaction.

• Ce-doped Ni(OH) x /Cu(OH) 2 was construct for efficient OER. • Ce-doped Ni(OH) x /Cu(OH) 2 required an overpotential of 225 mV to reach 10 mA cm−2. • Ce-doped Ni(OH) x /Cu(OH) 2 can work stably for 50 at 100 mA cm−2. It is urgent to develop highly efficient anode materials for electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reactions due to their sluggish kinetics. In this work, Ce-doped amorphous Ni(OH) x was constructed on Cu(OH) 2 nanorods via the simple electrodeposition method. It was demonstrated that the Ce dopant resulted in the charge transfer from Ni to O, leading to the Ni3+ with a higher valence state, and thus functioning as active sites with more intrinsic activity. Moreover, the Ce dopant could also reduce the charge transfer resistance, leading to faster charge transport during the OER process. The obtained sample exhibited excellent OER performance with an overpotential of 225 mV at 10 mA cm−2 and stable operation at 100 mA cm−2 for 50 h. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]