Tuning Complex Transition Metal Hydroxide Nanostructures as Active Catalysts for Water Oxidation by a Laser−Chemical Route

Creators: Niu, Kai-Yang; Lin, Feng; Jung, Suho; Fang, Lian; Nordlund, Dennis; McCrory, Charles C. L.; Weng, Tsu-Chien; Ercius, Peter; Doeff, Marca M.; Zheng, Haimei

Abstract

Diverse transition metal hydroxide nanostructures were synthesized by laser-induced hydrolysis in a liquid precursor solution for alkaline oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Several active OER catalysts with fine control of composition, structure, and valence state were obtained including (Li_x)[Ni_(0.66)Mn_(0.34)(OH)_2](NO_3)(CO_3) · mH_2O, Li_x[Ni_(0.67)Co_(0.33)(OH)_2](NO_3)_(0.25)(ORO)_(0.35) · mH_2O, etc. An operate overpotential less than 0.34 V at current density of 10 mA cm^(–2) was achieved. Such a controllable laser–chemical route for assessing complex nanostructures in liquids opens many opportunities to design novel functional materials for advanced applications.

Additional Information

© 2015 American Chemical Society. Received: January 4, 2015. Revised: February 11, 2015. Publication Date (Web): February 27, 2015. We thank Prof. Alexis T. Bell and Dr. Mary W. Louie for useful discussions. We performed TEM characterization using Tecnai, TitanX, and TEAM1 microscopes at National Center for Electron Microscopy of the Molecular Foundry at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), which is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Basic Energy Sciences under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. The synchrotron X-ray portions of this research were carried out at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (Beamlines 10-1 and 8-2), a Directorate of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and an Office of Science User Facility operated for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science at Stanford University. Electrochemical measurements are based on work performed at the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, a DOE Innovation Hub, supported through the Office of Science of the U.S. DOE under Award No. DE-SC0004993. K.N. acknowledges Dr. Renjia Zhou for performing the TGA, FT-IR in Molecular Foundry and Dr. Xin Liu at LBNL for measuring the UV−vis absorption spectra. L.F. acknowledges the support of China Scholarship Council (CSC) under No. 2010850533 and the National Basic Research Program of China (2014CB931700). F.L., D.N., and T.-C.W. thank Dr. Jun-Sik Lee and Glen Kerr for the help at SSRL Beamline 8-2. H.Z. acknowledges the SinBeRise program of BEARS at University of California, Berkeley for travel support. She also thanks the support of DOE Office of Science Early Career Research Program.

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