NiFe LDH/CuO nanosheet: a sheet-on-sheet strategy to boost the active site density towards oxygen evolution reaction.

The amount of active sites of a catalyst is of great importance to enhance the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity. Here, the sheet-on-sheet strategy is proposed to effectively increase the density of active sites of NiFe layered double hydroxide (NiFe LDH) catalyst in terms of structural engineering. As a non-precious electrocatalyst for the OER, NiFe LDH is grown directly on CuO nanosheets. As a result, the received NiFe LDH/CuO nanosheet catalyst with sheet-on-sheet structure shows an ultralow overpotential of 270 mV at 20 mA cm, much lower than that of RuO as a benchmark. The CuO nanosheets, as substrate, play the vital role in downsizing the NiFe LDH, leading to the raised active site density.