Heating and P Doping Promote Nife2o4 to Achieve a Faster Oxygen Evolution Reaction Pathway

Abstract

The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) plays a crucial role in the development of energy storage technologies such as water splitting for hydrogen production and metal-air batteries. Therefore, developing efficient electrocatalysts is essential for advancing OER. NiFe2O4 is a promising electrocatalyst with significant research potential. By incorporating P during the heating process, we successfully altered the reaction pathway of NiFe2O4, transforming it from an adsorb evolution mechanism (AEM) to lattice oxygen oxidation mechanism (LOM). Additionally, we controlled the heating time and temperature, analyzing the effects of these two parameters on the performance of NiFe2O4-P (NFO-P). Electrochemical measurements indicate that at 10 mA cm-2, NFO-P exhibits an overpotential of 229 mV and a Tafel slope of 75.1 mV dec-1. This research provides important insights for the exploration of transition metal catalytic mechanisms.

Keywords: NiFe2O4, OER, AEM, LOM