Efficient electrocatalytic oxygen evolution on amorphous nickel-cobalt binary oxide nanoporous layers

Nanoporous Ni-Co binary oxide layers were electrochemically fabricated by deposition followed by anodization, which produced an amorphous layered structure that could act as an efficient electrocatalyst for water oxidation. The highly porous morphologies produced higher electrochemically active surface areas, while the amorphous structure supplied abundant defect sites for oxygen evolution. These Ni-rich (10-40 atom % Co) binary oxides have an increased active surface area (roughness factor up to 17), reduced charge transfer resistance, lowered overpotential (∼325 mV) that produced a 10 mA cm^-2 current density, and a decreased Tafel slope (∼39 mV decade^-1). The present technique has a wide range of applications for the preparation of other binary or multiple-metals or metal oxides nanoporous films. Fabrication of nanoporous materials using this method could provide products useful for renewable energy production and storage applications.