Vertical Growth of Porous Perovskite Nanoarrays on Nickel Foam for Efficient Oxygen Evolution Reaction

Perovskite oxides possess high intrinsic activity toward oxygen evolution reaction (OER), while their catalytic activities have been restricted by the low surface area and poor conductivity. Herein, we report binder-free LaCoO 3 perovskite nanosheets vertically grown on the nickel foam as an OER catalyst with enhanced performance and stability in alkaline electrolytes. The proposed catalyst displays an outstanding performance to achieve the current density of 10 mA cm –2 at the overpotential of 342 mV, while 390 mV is required for the bulk LaCoO 3 prepared by conventional methods. The enhanced OER activity is mainly because the nanosheet structures have increased surface areas and enhanced conductivity and charge transfer. Moreover, the porous structure formed by vertically aligned nanosheets increases surface wettability, which enables the rapid dissipation of gas bubbles along with excellent durability. This work proposes an approach to unlocking the high intrinsic activity of perovskites for OER.