Fabrication of Ce-doped Hollow NiCo2O4 Nanoprisms with Heterointerface from MOF-Engaged Strategy for Oxygen Evolution Reaction

Abstract

The reasonable design and controlled synthesis of efficient and hollow nanocatalysts with plentiful heterointerface and fully exposed active sites to accelerate the electron transfer and mass transfer process for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is highly desirable for water splitting by electrolysis. Herein, a metal-organic framework (MOF)-engaged strategy is developed to prepare Ce-doped hollow mesoporous NiCo₂O₄ nanoprisms (NiCo₂O₄/CeO₂ HNPs) for enhanced OER. Due to the advanced synthesis strategy generating a large number of interfaces between NiCo₂O₄ and CeO₂, as well as modulated electrons of the active center by the synergistic action of multi-metals, the obtained catalyst exhibits excellent OER performance with a small overpotential of 290 mV at current density (J) of 10 mA cm⁻². Spinel/Perovskite hollow nanoprisms synthesized by a similar way demonstrates the versatility of our strategy. This work may provide new insights into the development of rare earth-doped hollow polymetallic spinel oxide catalysts.