Layered serpentine Ni₃Ge₂O₅(OH)₄ is compositionally active and structurally favorable for adsorption and diffusion of reactants in oxygen evolution reactions (OER). However, one of the major problems for these materials is limited active sites and low efficiency for OER. In this regard, a new catalyst consisting of layered serpentine Ni₃Ge₂O₅(OH)₄ nanosheets is introduced via a controlled one‐step synthetic process where the morphology, size, and layers are well tailored. The theoretical calculations indicate that decreased layers and increased exposure of (100) facets in serpentine Ni₃Ge₂O₅(OH)₄ lead to much lower Gibbs free energy in adsorption of reactive intermediates. Experimentally, it is found that the reduction in number of layers with minimized particle size exhibits plenty of highly surface‐active sites of (100) facets and demonstrates a much enhanced performance in OER than the corresponding multilayered nanosheets. Such a strategy of tailoring active sites of serpentine Ni₃Ge₂O₅(OH)₄ nanosheets offers an effective method to design highly efficient electrocatalysts.

中文翻译：

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具有量身定制的层和尺寸的蛇形Ni3Ge2O5（OH）4纳米片用于有效的放氧反应

层状蛇形Ni ₃ Ge ₂ O ₅（OH）₄具有成分活性，并且在结构上有利于氧析出反应（OER）中反应物的吸附和扩散。但是，这些材料的主要问题之一是活性位点有限和OER效率低。在这方面，通过可控的一步合成工艺引入了一种由层状蛇形Ni ₃ Ge ₂ O ₅（OH）₄纳米片组成的新型催化剂，该工艺可以很好地调整其形态，大小和层。理论计算表明，蛇形Ni ₃ Ge ₂中（100）晶面的层减少和暴露增加O ₅（OH）₄在吸附反应性中间体时导致低得多的吉布斯自由能。通过实验发现，具有最小粒度的层数减少表现出（100）面的大量高表面活性位点，并且在OER中表现出比相应的多层纳米片更高的性能。调整蛇形Ni ₃ Ge ₂ O ₅（OH）₄纳米片的活性位点的这种策略提供了设计高效电催化剂的有效方法。