Journal Article

N-Doped Graphene-Decorated NiCo Alloy Coupled with Mesoporous NiCoMoO Nano-sheet Heterojunction for Enhanced Water Electrolysis Activity at High Current Density

Chen, Jinli, Yu Tianqi, Yin Shibin, Qian Guangfu, Luo, Lin

2021

Overview

HighlightsN-doped graphene-coated structure and mesoporous nano-sheet can efficiently boost active sites and stability for hydrogen and oxygen evolution reaction.NiCo@C-NiCoMoO/NF exhibits low overpotentials for HER (266 mV) and OER (390 mV) at ± 1000 mA cm−2.For water electrolysis, it can hold at 1000 mA cm−2 for 43 h in 6.0 M KOH + 60 °C condition.Developing highly effective and stable non-noble metal-based bifunctional catalyst working at high current density is an urgent issue for water electrolysis (WE). Herein, we prepare the N-doped graphene-decorated NiCo alloy coupled with mesoporous NiCoMoO nano-sheet grown on 3D nickel foam (NiCo@C-NiCoMoO/NF) for water splitting. NiCo@C-NiCoMoO/NF exhibits outstanding activity with low overpotentials for hydrogen and oxygen evolution reaction (HER: 39/266 mV; OER: 260/390 mV) at ± 10 and ± 1000 mA cm−2. More importantly, in 6.0 M KOH solution at 60 °C for WE, it only requires 1.90 V to reach 1000 mA cm−2 and shows excellent stability for 43 h, exhibiting the potential for actual application. The good performance can be assigned to N-doped graphene-decorated NiCo alloy and mesoporous NiCoMoO nano-sheet, which not only increase the intrinsic activity and expose abundant catalytic activity sites, but also enhance its chemical and mechanical stability. This work thus could provide a promising material for industrial hydrogen production.

• Publisher: Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Catalytic activity / Current density / Decoration / Electrolysis / Graphene / Heterojunctions / High current / Hydrogen production / Intermetallic compounds / Metal foams / Noble metals / Oxygen evolution reactions / Water splitting