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Vol. 13 (2021)

Synergistic Interfacial and Doping Engineering of Heterostructured NiCo(OH)x-CoyW as an Efficient Alkaline Hydrogen Evolution Electrocatalyst

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-021-00639-x
Ruopeng Li
MIIT Key Laboratory of Critical Materials Technology for New Energy Conversion and Storage, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, People’s Republic of China
Hao Xu
MIIT Key Laboratory of Critical Materials Technology for New Energy Conversion and Storage, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, People’s Republic of China
Peixia Yang
MIIT Key Laboratory of Critical Materials Technology for New Energy Conversion and Storage, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, People’s Republic of China
Dan Wang
MIIT Key Laboratory of Critical Materials Technology for New Energy Conversion and Storage, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, People’s Republic of China
Yun Li
MIIT Key Laboratory of Critical Materials Technology for New Energy Conversion and Storage, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, People’s Republic of China
Lihui Xiao
MIIT Key Laboratory of Critical Materials Technology for New Energy Conversion and Storage, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, People’s Republic of China
Xiangyu Lu
MIIT Key Laboratory of Critical Materials Technology for New Energy Conversion and Storage, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, People’s Republic of China
Bo Wang
MIIT Key Laboratory of Critical Materials Technology for New Energy Conversion and Storage, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, People’s Republic of China
Jinqiu Zhang
MIIT Key Laboratory of Critical Materials Technology for New Energy Conversion and Storage, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, People’s Republic of China
Maozhong An
MIIT Key Laboratory of Critical Materials Technology for New Energy Conversion and Storage, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, People’s Republic of China

Corresponding Author: Bo Wang

wangbo19880804@163.com

Nano-Micro Letters, Vol. 13 (2021), Article Number: 120

Abstract

To achieve high efficiency of water electrolysis to produce hydrogen (H2), developing non-noble metal-based catalysts with considerable performance have been considered as a crucial strategy, which is correlated with both the interphase properties and multi-metal synergistic effects. Herein, as a proof of concept, a delicate NiCo(OH)x-CoyW catalyst with a bush-like heterostructure was realized via gas-template-assisted electrodeposition, followed by an electrochemical etching-growth process, which ensured a high active area and fast gas release kinetics for a superior hydrogen evolution reaction, with an overpotential of 21 and 139 mV at 10 and 500 mA cm−2, respectively. Physical and electrochemical analyses demonstrated that the synergistic effect of the NiCo(OH)x/CoyW heterogeneous interface resulted in favorable electron redistribution and faster electron transfer efficiency. The amorphous NiCo(OH)x strengthened the water dissociation step, and metal phase of CoW provided sufficient sites for moderate H immediate adsorption/H2 desorption. In addition, NiCo(OH)x-CoyW exhibited desirable urea oxidation reaction activity for matching H2 generation with a low voltage of 1.51 V at 50 mA cm−2. More importantly, the synthesis and testing of the NiCo(OH)x-CoyW catalyst in this study were all solar-powered, suggesting a promising environmentally friendly process for practical applications.


Highlights:


1 A promising solar-powered environmentally friendly process for the synthesis and application of catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction has been proposed.
2 A delicate NiCo(OH)x-CoyW catalyst with a bush-like heterostructure was realized via gas-template-assisted electrodeposition, followed by electrochemical etching process.
3 The excellent catalytic effect of NiCo(OH)x-CoyW for the hydrogen evolution reaction was systematically investigated through various physical and electrochemical analyses.

Keywords

Interfacial and doping engineering Heterostructured electrocatalyst Solar-driven Hydrogen evolution Urea-assisted water splitting
Li, Ruopeng, Hao Xu, Peixia Yang, Dan Wang, Yun Li, Lihui Xiao, Xiangyu Lu, Bo Wang, Jinqiu Zhang, and Maozhong An. 2021. “Synergistic Interfacial and Doping Engineering of Heterostructured NiCo(OH)x-CoyW As an Efficient Alkaline Hydrogen Evolution Electrocatalyst”. Nano-Micro Letters 13 (May):120. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-021-00639-x.
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