A NiFe-based compound is considered one of the most promising candidates for the highest oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalytic activities among all nonprecious metal-based electrocatalysts. In this report, a unique catalyst of free-standing sandwiched NiFe nanoparticles encapsulated by graphene sheets is first devised and fabricated. In this method, we use low-cost, sustainable, and environmentally friendly glucose as a carbon source, ultrathin Fe-doped Ni(OH)2 nanosheets as a precursor, and a sacrificial template. This special nanoarchitecture with a conductive network around active catalysts can accelerate electron transfer and prevent NiFe nanoparticles from aggregation and peeling off during long-time electrochemical reactions, thereby exhibiting an excellent OER activity and stability in basic solutions. In this work, our sandwiched catalyst presents well activities of a low onset of ∼1.44 V (vs RHE) and Tafel slope of ∼30 mV/decade in 1 M KOH at a scan rate of 5 mV/s.
Keywords: NiFe; OER; free-standing; graphene; sandwich-like.