Fabrication of Cu(OH)2@NiFe-layered double hydroxide catalyst array for electrochemical water splitting

NiFe-layered double hydride (NiFe-LDH) coated Cu(OH)(2) array was well fabricated on carbon paper as anode by using a facile unipolar pulse electrodeposition (UPED) method for electrochemical water splitting. Effects of the initial molar ratio of Ni/Fe in the deposition solution, applied pulse potential, applied quantity of electricity on the performance of anode were investigated. The optimum Cu(OH)(2) nanorod @ NiFe-LDH nanosheet core/shell array structure was successfully obtained with an initial Ni/Fe molar ratio of 6:4 in the deposition solution, an applied pulse potential of -1.1 V and an applied quantity of electricity of 2.5 C by using the UPED method, which also showed a small overpotential of 283 mV to yield a current density of 10 mA cm(-2) and a good stability during water electrolysis. It is expected to provide a new way to prepare anode with low cost and high performance for water electrolysis. (C) 2016 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.