Chemical etching of layered double hydroxides

Abstract

Layered double hydroxides (LDH) are a family of materials with a variety of uses. Recently nickel based LDH have been studied for its properties as electrocatalysts for the water splitting reaction. In this work we will study if the addition and the latter removal of aluminium into the LDH structure improves the material properties as oxygen evolution catalyst. The LDH has been synthesized in three different metal combinations (nickel, nickel-iron and nickel-molybdenum) over a nickel foam support with a hydrothermal method. Both the structural and electrochemical properties of the material have been studied. Moreover, we studied an alternative method to deposit the LDH over the support with different grades of success. In the end, this study shows that only the metal combination of nickel and iron has the potential to become a useful electrocatalyst, and the removal of aluminium from a DLH does not make a better electrocatalyst compared with the non-aluminium counterpart