Unlocking industrial OER performance via corrosion-induced interface engineering and built-in electric fields

A corrosion-induced NiFe-LDH@Ni(OH) 2 heterointerface was constructed in situ. • A built-in electric field promoted charge transfer and active-phase evolution. • The electrode delivered high OER activity under industrially relevant conditions. Developing oxygen evolution electrocatalysts that combine fast kinetics, structural robustness, and scalability under industrially relevant alkaline conditions remains a major challenge. Herein, a corrosion-induced strategy is employed to in situ construct a NiFe-LDH@Ni(OH) 2 heterointerfacial electrode on nickel foam. The Fermi-level mismatch between NiFe-LDH and Ni(OH) 2 induces a built-in electric field, which promotes interfacial charge redistribution and accelerates catalyst reconstruction during OER. As a result, the electrode achieves an overpotential of 240 mV at 100 mA·cm −2 in 1 M KOH, with a Tafel slope of 30.5 mV·dec −1 . Under industrially relevant conditions (80 °C, 30 wt% KOH), it delivers 0.5 and 1.0 A cm −2 at 1.76 and 1.93 V, respectively, in an electrolyzer, along with low energy consumption (4.64 kWh Nm −3 H 2 ) and stable operation. Combined spectroscopic, electrochemical, and theoretical analyses indicate that the interfacial electric field facilitates directional electron transfer and accelerates the formation of active NiOOH/NiFeOOH species. This work highlights corrosion-induced heterointerface engineering as an effective strategy to couple interfacial electric-field regulation with active-phase evolution for alkaline oxygen evolution reaction. Download: Download high-res image (179KB) Download: Download full-size image