Surface plasmons activate the oxygen evolution reaction over nickel hydroxide electrocatalysts

Abstract Improving the intrinsic poor conductivity and unsatisfactory electrocatalytic performance of the transition metal based electrocatalysts is highly desirable yet challenging in the research domain of water electrolysis. Herein, we report a novel electrocatalyst by decorating silver (Ag) nanoparticles (NPs) onto Ni(OH)2 (NSs) towards electrocatalyzing oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The presence of Ag NPs can effectively promote the charge transfer because of the improved conductivity. More importantly, surface plasmons are generated in the Ni(OH)2/Ag composite under the light irradiation, providing hot carriers which can not only accelerate the reaction kinetics by lowering the activation energy and charge transfer resistance, but also participate in the electrocatalytic reaction to further boost the activity. With the assistance of surface plasmon, the OER performance of Ni(OH)2/Ag is significantly enhanced compared with pristine Ni(OH)2 counterpart. This work offers a strategy to design electrocatalysts and demonstrates the importance of surface plasmon to the enhancement of OER activity.