High-performance NiOOH/FeOOH electrode for OER catalysis

The outstanding performance of NiOOH/FeOOH-based oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts is rationalized in terms of a bifunctional mechanism involving two distinct active sites. In this mechanism, the OOH_ads reaction intermediate, which unfavorably affects the overall OER activity due to the linear scaling relationship, is replaced by O2 adsorbed at the active site on FeOOH, and H_ads adsorbed at the NiOOH substrate. Here, we use the computational hydrogen electrode method to assess promising models of both the FeOOH catalyst and the NiOOH hydrogen acceptor. These two materials are interfaced in various ways to evaluate their performance as bifunctional OER catalysts. In some cases, overpotentials as low as 0.16 V are found, supporting the bifunctional mechanism as a means to overcome the limitations imposed by linear scaling relationships.