Graphdiyne: a superior carbon additive to boost the activity of water oxidation catalysts

A new carbon allotrope, graphdiyne (GDY), with a highly π-conjugated structure of sp- and sp²-hybridized carbon networks, has recently emerged and been used as a superior carbon additive to boost the activity of water oxidation catalysts. In this work, a hybrid GDY/NiFe-LDH electrocatalyst was prepared by a facile hydrothermal treatment, which shows an outstanding catalytic activity with a low overpotential of 260 mV at 10 mA cm^-2 catalytic current density and good durability towards oxygen evolution in 1.0 M KOH solution. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations prove that the sp- and sp²-hybridized GDY shows both superior electron capture and excellent electron transfer ability compared to that of the conventional sp²-hybridized carbon materials.