By engineering the interaction between the transition metal ions (M = Mn 2+, Co 2+, and Ni 2+ ) and the nanorod-shaped assemblages of Au nanoclusters (AuNCs), a series of tubular AuNCs@M(OH) 2 core–shell nanocomposites are produced in which numerous AuNCs are embedded beneath a thin layer of metal hydroxide with thickness below 4 nm and where the AuNCs within the same assemblage are partially connected with each other. Because of the synergistic effects from the abundant presence of the AuNCs–M(OH) 2 interfaces, the AuNCs@M(OH) 2 (M = Co and Ni) nanocomposites demonstrate evidently enhanced activity for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in alkaline condition. Overpotentials of 0.350 and 0.375 V have been obtained at the current density of 10 mA cm –2 in 0.1 M KOH for the AuNCs@Co(OH) 2 and AuNCs@Ni(OH) 2, respectively. And at the overpotential of 0.42 V, the current density of AuNCs@M(OH) 2 (M = Co and Ni) nanocomposites is more than 10 times of those generated by their respective metal hydroxides. Compared with monophasic transition metal hydroxides, the AuNCs@ M(OH) 2 nanocomposites, especially the AuNCs@Ni(OH) 2, possess excellent OER catalytic stability.
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Zhou et al. (2016) studied this question.