Calixarene Intercalated NiCo Layered Double Hydroxide for Enhanced Oxygen Evolution Catalysis

Water splitting provides a promising, sustainable way to resolve problems arising due to depleting fossil fuels. The success needs development of low-cost and high-performance electrode materials. The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is a crucial reaction in water splitting. The combined Ni and Co oxide developed nanostructures having a small overpotential and fast kinetics of OER. They have drawn considerable attention, because of their theoretically high efficiency, high abundance, low cost, and environmental benignity in comparison with precious metal oxides, such as RuO₂ and IrO₂. However, the desired efficiency needs the developments of enhanced specific active area and conductivity. In the present communication, we address these issues. Specifically, exfoliation of layer double hydroxide (LDH) is applied to enhance the active surface area. The study reveals that intercalation by calixarene in NiCo LDH affords a multifunctional interlayer to deliver a large active surface area and fast electron transport toward the carbon nano-onion (CNO) support. It favorably lowers the overpotentials in OER (290 mV) and  attains Tafel slope of 31 mV/decade. Enhanced conductivity is achieved using CNO as a support for the calixarene intercalated NiCo LDH. These developments offer a synergistic effect in achieving superior electrocatalytic activity for OER. This work gives insight into designing binder-free electrodes in alkaline media with good stability for advanced OER activity.