One-Pot Synthesis of Nitrate-Intercalated NiFe Layered Double Hydroxides with an 8.2 Å Interlayer Spacing

Abstract

The synthesis of 2D layered double hydroxides (LDHs) monolayer remains a major challenge for energy conversion and storage. Herein, a one-pot strategy is reported to synthesize nitrate-intercalated nickel–iron LDHs (NiFe LDHs_NO3−) by using hexamethylenetetramine as a hydrolysis reagent. The NiFe LDHs monolayers can be facilely dispersed in water within 10 s by hand shaking because the NiFe LDHs_NO3− bulk owns an enlarged interlayer spacing up to 8.2 Å. Critical information on the structure, prerequisite, and universality of this strategy is obtained by advanced characterization methods, for example, transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, X-ray diffraction pattern, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. As a proof of concept application, the NiFe LDHs monolayer is employed as an electrocatalyst for oxygen evolution reaction and displays much superior performance to the bulk LDHs and RuO2. This facile strategy paves the way for designing other LDHs monolayers for highly active electrocatalysts.