NiFe‐Based Electrocatalysts for Alkaline Oxygen Evolution: Challenges, Strategies, and Advances Toward Industrial‐Scale Deployment

Abstract

Developing high‐efficiency alkaline water splitting technology holds great promise in potentially revolutionizing the traditional petrochemical industry to a more sustainable hydrogen economy. Importantly, the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) accompanied at the anode is considered as a critical bottleneck in terms of both complicated mechanism and sluggish kinetics, requiring rational design of OER electrocatalysts to elucidate the structure‐performance relationship and reduce the applied overpotential. As a benchmarked non‐precious metal candidate, NiFe‐based electrocatalysts have gained enormous attention due to low‐cost, earth‐abundance, and remarkable intrinsic OER activity, which are expected to be implemented in industrial alkaline water splitting. In this contribution, a comprehensive overview of NiFe‐based OER electrocatalysts is provided, starting with fundamental mechanisms, evaluation metrics, and synthetic protocols. Subsequently, basic principles with corresponding regulatory strategies are summarized following the sequence of substrate‐catalyst‐electrolyte design of efficient and robust NiFe‐based electrocatalysts toward industrial‐scale deployment. Perspectives on remaining challenges and instructive opportunities in this booming field are finally discussed.