LAUSR

The quest for developing electrochemical energy storage and conversion technologies continues to be a great impetus to develop cost-effective, highly-active and electrochemically-stable electrocatalysts for overcoming the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activation energy barriers. Co3O4 nanocrystals have great potential as OER catalysts, and research efforts on improving catalytic activity of Co3O4 are currently underway in many laboratories. Herein, we report the direct growth of CoFe LDH nanosheets on the active Co3O4 substrate to form nanohybrid electrocatalysts for OER. We find that the CoFe LDH/Co3O4(6:4) nanohybrid exhibits superior catalytic performance with a low overpotential and a small Tafel slope in alkaline solution. The outstanding performance of CoFe LDH/Co3O4(6:4) nanohybrid is primarily due to the synergistic effects induced by the strongly coupled interface between CoFe LDH and Co3O4, this feature endowed CoFe LDH/Co3O4(6:4) nanohybrid with synergistic effect in enhancing the intrinsic OER catalytic activity and favoring fast charge transfer. Compared to other Co3O4-based catalysts, our research shows certain advantages and offers a feasible avenue for improving the activity of Co3O4-based catalysts.