Bionic sunflower-like structure of polydopamine-confined NiFe-based quantum dots for electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction

ABSTRACT NiFe-based nanostructures have been attracting attentions as a promising non-noble metal electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction in alkaline. In this paper, a bionic sunflower-like NiFe-polydopamine film was prepared via self-polymerization of dopamine-Ni2+/Fe3+ followed by partial pyrolysis process. In the films, NiO quantum dots are embedded in Fe-coupled polydopamine due to the space-confined effect of PDA. The self-activation process effect led to in-situ reconstruction of the generation of NiOOH and the migration of Fe sites to NiOOH surface. Abundant Fe sites on the NiOOH surface facilitated formation of stable O⁎ intermediate. Moreover, the coordination-confined effect of PDA for Fe ions in the PDA network gave the PDANF catalyst excellent durability. The NiFe-polydopamine film exhibited excellent intrinsic OER activity with a low overpotential of 254.1 mV for 10 mA cm-2 and an unprecedentedly low Tafel slope of 23.3 mV dec-1.