Synthesis of structurally chiral nickel oxide nanostructures for enhanced spin-dependent oxygen electrocatalysis

Chiral inorganic materials with unique asymmetries hold promising potential in several fields, including catalytic processes. However, imparting structural chirality to inorganic materials presents substantial challenges that hinders their exploration in many application. In this study, we report a simple two-step method for synthesizing structurally chiral nickel oxides (NiO) nanostructures and demonstrate that the chiral-induced spin-selective mechanism enhances the catalytic performance during electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Compared to their achiral NiO counterparts, the chiral NiO nanostructures not only improve the reaction kinetics (a 60 mV reduction in overpotential), but also effectively modulate the reaction pathway to inhibit the byproduct hydrogen peroxide generation. Under neutral conditions, this modulation results in a 4.5-fold reduction in hydrogen peroxide production. This work enriches the variety of chiral inorganic nanomaterials and paves the way for the development and application of chiral inorganic nanomaterials in spin-dependent processes.