由教授领导的一组科学家。石章桥结合低成本的优点，合成了一种氧演化反应（OER）催化剂。催化活性好，寿命长。这种OER催化剂由直接生长在泡沫镍上的单晶氢氧化镍纳米片组成。The work has been published recently in化学通讯.
奥尔从水中产生氧气的反应，is an indispensable component of electricity-generation devices using sustainable energy (例如fuel cells and photoelectrochemical water splitting cells).OER反应动力学缓慢，反应途径复杂，是制约整体能量转换效率的瓶颈。像这样的，OER catalysts are needed to accelerate the OER reaction rate.Among the various OER catalysts,贵金属氧化物由于其超高的催化活性而引人注目。However,the "shining" performance is dimmed by their high cost and short lifetime.因此，obtaining alternatives with comparable OER catalytic activity as well as long-term stability is required to advance the utilisation of sustainable energy.
为了应对这一挑战，the authors turned their attention to a low-cost transition metal,nickel.他们开发了一种水热法，使用镍泡沫来生长高度结晶和接近垂直排列的镍铁氢氧化物纳米片作为OER催化剂（图1a）。The seamless integration between the hydroxide nanosheets and the nickel substrates reduces the contact resistance and facilitates interfacial electron transfer.近垂直方向（图1b）允许水分子完全接触催化剂。这两种特性都具有很好的催化活性。此外，the high crystallinity (Figure 1c) ensures the catalysts are robust enough to withstand extensive use without degradation in performance.
图1.（a）镍泡沫（nf）支撑的镍铁氢氧化物[铁镍（oh）2]纳米片的合成程序示意图。(b) The scanning electron microscopy image shows the near-vertically aligned nanosheets on a piece of nickel foam.（c）透射电子显微镜图像显示合成催化剂的结晶度。
图2.The polarisation curves of different OER catalysts.The onset potential is marked by the dotted line in the inset.
催化活性也很稳定，在至少100小时的测量后，没有性能损失。有趣的是，100小时后，起始电位进一步降低至1.465 V。The authors attributed this observation to a "self-activation" process that involves the formation and accumulation of nickel oxyhydroxide (NiOOH) on the surface of the nanosheets.
The hydrothermal method demonstrated here could be used to synthesize other cost-effective crystalline catalysts to develop catalysts for reactions beyond OER,比如氢的生成和二氧化碳的还原。
要了解更多信息，请阅读：
独立式单晶Nife氢氧化物纳米片阵列：一种用于氧演化的自激活和强大的电催化剂
金龙柳姚正Zhenyu Wang,Zhouguang,Anthony Vasileff and Shi-Zhang Qiao
化学。共同体。2017，doi:10.1039/c7cc08843d
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Tianyu Liu obtained his Ph.D.(2017) in Physical 新利手机客户端Chemistry from University of California,美国的圣克鲁斯。He is passionate about scientific communication to introduce cutting-edge research to both the general public and scientists with diverse research expertise.他是的博客作家化学。共同体。和化学。脊髓损伤.有关他的更多信息，请访问网址：liutianyuresearch.weebly.com/.
