Exploiting earth-abundant
electrocatalysts with comparable high
performance and stability to the benchmarking noble metal-based catalysts
for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is of fundamental importance for
promising sustainable energy conversion and storage technologies.
Herein, we report an in situ grown zinc doped cobalt–iron layered
double hydroxide (ZnFeCo LDH) with a unique needle-like nanostructure
and partial amorphous phase for highly efficient OER catalysts. Benefitting
from the nanoneedle arrays structure, partial amorphous phase, tunable
zinc doping, and surface trivalent cobalt ions, partly amorphous Zn
doped FeCo LDH 1D nanoneedle arrays (PA-ZnFeCo LDH) exhibited superior
electrocatalytic OER activity, with a small Tafel slope of 58.73 mV
per decade, an exceptional overpotential of 221, 276, and 294 mV to
drive 10, 100, and 300 mA cm–2, respectively, and
long-term electrochemical stability of 100 000 s. This work
offers insights into the rational design and synthesis of unique 1D
non-noble metal hydroxide with partial amorphous phase as highly efficient
OER electrocatalysis.