Highly active and low-cost electrocatalysts for water oxidation are required due to the demands on sustainable solar fuels; however, developing highly efficient catalysts to meet industrial requirements remains a challenge. Herein, we report a monolayer of nickel–vanadium-layered double hydroxide that shows a current density of 27 mA cm^-2 (57 mA cm^-2 after ohmic-drop correction) at an overpotential of 350 mV for water oxidation. Such performance is comparable to those of the best-performing nickel–iron-layered double hydroxides for water oxidation in alkaline media. Mechanistic studies indicate that the nickel–vanadium-layered double hydroxides can provide high intrinsic catalytic activity, mainly due to enhanced conductivity, facile electron transfer and abundant active sites. This work may expand the scope of cost-effective electrocatalysts for water splitting.

Nature Communications 7, Article number: 11981 doi:10.1038/ncomms11981
Received 10 December 2015 Accepted 18 May 2016 Published 16 June 2016

http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2016/160616/ncomms11981/full/ncomms11981.html