Nitrogen-doped nickel oxide catalysts for oxygen-evolution reactions

Oxygen-evolution reaction (OER) in alkaline media has been considered as a key process for various energy applications. Many types of catalysts have been developed to reduce high overpotential in OER, such as metal alloys, metal oxides, perovskite, or spinel. Nickel oxide (NiO) has high potential to increase OER activity according to volcano plots. The exact mechanisms for OER has not been discovered, but defects such as cation or anion vacancy typically act as an active site for diverse electrochemical reactions. In this study, nitrogen was doped into NiO by using ethylenediamine for formation of Ni vacancy, and the effects of N doping on OER activity and stability was studied.