Variable nanosheets for highly efficient oxygen evolution reaction

Water electrolysis is a promising method to solve the energy crisis and environmental problems caused by fossil fuels. For such heterogeneous catalytic reactions that produce gas, bubble adhesion and diffusion-oriented low-efficiency mass transfer on the gas-liquid-solid three-phase interface significantly affect the rate of the catalytic reaction. Herein, we report a high-efficiency oxygen evolution reaction (OER) strategy wherein a flexibly deformable material is leased as a catalyst for electrochemical reactions. In combination with numerical simulations, we identify the nanosheets that are bent when subjected to an electric field to accelerate the bubble separation and forced convection, resulting in increased electrocatalytic activity, where the onset potential and overpotential of NF (nickel foam)-CoNiS_{5 h} were as low as 1.53 V and 304.4 mV, respectively, compared with those of nondeformable NF-CoNiS_{1 h}. This provides unique opportunities to design proof-of-concept self-propelled catalysis based on a better understanding of heterogeneous catalytic reactions.