Sliver nanoparticles decorated ultrathin CoMo LDH nanosheets as a hierarchical self-supported electrodes with high corrosion resistance for efficient seawater electrolysis

In the pursuit of highly efficient and durable electrocatalysts is vital for green hydrogen production by seawater electrolysis. Herein, a hierarchical silver-modified cobalt-molybdenum layered hydroxide (Ag-CoMo LDH/NF) nanostructure is designed by in-situ generated from metal-organic framework tactic followed by a spontaneous redox reaction. Benefiting from the multilevel network architecture, synergistic effect between Ag and CoMo LDH, abundant efficient heterointerfaces and the excellent corrosion resistance properties, the as-prepared Ag-CoMo LDH/NF electrocatalyst exhibits competitive oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalytic activity, delivering low overpotentials of 250 and 383 mV at 10 and 50 mA cm⁻² in alkaline seawater, respectively. Such catalytic performance is better than that of pure CoMo LDH/NF and commercial RuO₂, which is also superior to most catalysts reported thus far. In addition, due to the enhanced corrosion resistance, the self-supporting Ag-CoMo LDH/NF electrode shows robust stability exceeding 160 h at 20 mA cm⁻² in natural seawater from the Bohai Sea (without any purification, 1 M KOH added). This work presents a facile and economic approach to fabricating an inexpensive heterogeneous metallic catalyst for direct seawater electrolysis.