Abstract
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•Porous NiO has been synthesized by a simple thermal oxidation method.•Thermally oxidized NiO show significantly enhanced OER activity.•It is promising for fabrication of low-cost and robust OER electrode.
Low-cost and competent electrocatalysts play a key role in an electrocatalytic water oxidation reaction. Herein, we report that readily available bare nickel foam (NF) can be used as conductive substrate and precursor to grow a porous nickel oxide (NiO) using a simple and scalable thermal oxidation method. The obtained NiO supported on NF is used as binder-free electrocatalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and its electrochemical properties are evaluated by linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) in 1M KOH. The porous NiO thin film acts as an efficient electrocatalyst for the OER and achieves a catalytic current density of 10mAcm−2 at an overpotential of 310mV with a smaller Tafel slope of 54mVdec−1. The electrode also shows good durability over 24h with negligible degradation. This durable and high-performance electrocatalyst can be a competitor to electrocatalysts that consist of costly elements and, require advanced synthesis; the NiO electrocatalyst shows progress towards the replacement of noble metal-based electrocatalysts for the OER.