SDS-Assisted Morphology Regulation of NiMoO4 for Efficient Alkaline Water Oxidation.

Oxygen evolution reaction (OER) remains the primary kinetic bottleneck in alkaline water electrolysis, necessitating the development of efficient, economically viable, and earth-abundant electrocatalysts. Herein, a facile sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-assisted hydrothermal strategy is employed to synthesize nanostructured NiMoO4 electrocatalysts with tailored morphology and enhanced electrocatalytic activity. Acting as a soft-template and structure-directing agent, SDS regulates the nucleation and growth of NiMoO4, resulting in a porous and interconnected nanostructure with abundant exposed active sites. The optimized NiMoO4-SDS-2 electrode exhibits outstanding OER performance, requiring an overpotential of only 428.5 mV to achieve a current density of 100 mA cm-2, together with a Tafel slope of 62.4 mV dec-1, demonstrating accelerated reaction kinetics. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and double-layer capacitance analyses reveal enhanced charge-transfer capability and a larger electrochemically active surface area, while long-term durability tests confirm excellent operational stability under alkaline conditions. The enhanced catalytic performance is associated with SDS-induced morphology regulation, improved active-site accessibility, and favorable interfacial charge-transfer characteristics. This work demonstrates that surfactant-assisted soft-templating is an effective strategy for engineering high-performance NiMoO4-based electrocatalysts and provides valuable insights into the rational design of advanced transition metal oxide catalysts for efficient and durable alkaline water oxidation.