Electronically Modified Ce³⁺ Ion Doped 2D NiFe-LDH Nanosheets over a 1D Microfiber: A High-Performance Electrocatalyst for Overall Water Splitting

In the 21st century, it is indeed necessary to produce green hydrogen as an alternative energy source for future energy generation to mitigate the harmful effects of the shortage of nonrenewable energy sources. To generate hydrogen via water electrolysis, it is undeniably necessary to develop a cost-effective bifunctional catalyst for water electrolysis. Presently, layered double hydroxide (LDH) and 1D fibrous materials have been used for various applications due to their excellent physiochemical properties. Herein, we had synthesized NiFe-LDH and Ce doped NiFe-LDH via a simple wet chemical method followed by the preparation of NiFe-LDH and Ce doped NiFe-LDH incorporated microfiber via the electrospinning (ES) method. The replacement of Fe ions into Ce ions leads to an increase in catalytic activity, flexible coordinate sites, and an increase in the surface area of the particles. The experimental results shows that the Ce@NiFe-LDH fiber possesses a higher activity in both the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) with a lower overpotential of 220 and 81 mV at 10 mA cm–2 current density. The same catalyst has been analyzed in a two-electrode system in 1 M KOH solution (Ce@NiFe-LDH fiber as the anode and cathode), and the overall electrochemical cell demands an overpotential of 360 mV to drive 10 mA cm–2 current density. Therefore, the combination of simple wet chemical synthesis and the ES method produces an excellent electrocatalyst (Ce@NiFe-LDH fiber) for water splitting reaction for large-scale production and commercialization.