Highly Conductive and Mechanically Robust NiFe Alloy Aerogels: An Exceptionally Active and Durable Water Oxidation Catalyst

Poor stability of nanostructured electrocatalysts at rigorous industrial conditions significantly inhibits their performances in practical electrolyzers. Although many substrate-supported nanostructured electrocatalysts present attractive performance at small currents, they cannot sustain industry-level high current densities for long-term operation. Herein, by chemically organizing nanoscale electrocatalysts into a macroscopic substrate-free metallic alloy aerogel, this NiFe-based nano-catalyst achieves 1000-h durability at industrial-level current densities, with exceptionally high activities of 500 mA at the overpotential of only 281 mV. This NiFe alloy aerogel is constructed by a magnetic-field assisted growth and assembly of ferromagnetic NiFe nanoparticles, in which nanowires are loosely crosslinked by metallic joints. This alloy aerogel shows a high electric conductivity of 500 S m⁻¹, structural stability for more than 1.5 years in alkaline electrolyte, and almost complete recovery after compression exceeding 50% strain for 1000 cycles. The excellent mechanical stability of this metallic aerogel behaves as the key contributor to the superior electrocatalytic stability under industrially relevant conditions. This work offers a paradigm for electrode design for the practical application of nano-catalysts in industrial alkaline water electrolysis.