Controllable formation of amorphous structure to improve the oxygen evolution reaction performance of a CoNi LDH.

The morphology design of layered double hydroxides (LDHs) is an important way to determine the catalytic performance of LDH materials. A novel structure of CoNi LDH sheets with amorphous structure on the edge was prepared by electrooxidation. It was characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM and XPS. It was found that during the electrooxidation, some of the Co ions were oxidized to Co to form amorphous CoOOH intermediates, which promoted the OER performance. The electrochemical test results show that CoNi LDH treated by electrooxidation for 6 hours has an ultra-low overpotential of 206 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm, and can work stably under alkaline conditions for more than 10 hours. This work suggests that introducing an amorphous structure on LDH through electrooxidation produces abundant active sites, which is an easy and efficient method to improve the OER performance of CoNi LDHs.