Construction of hierarchical nickel/cobalt iron-hydroxide and nickel/cobalt selenide nanotubes for efficient electrocatalytic water splitting. (29th April 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Feng, Xiaojuan; Hu, Zhongai; Shi, Yanlong; Wang, Xiaotong; Hou, Lijie; Zhang, Yulong; Ma, Weixia
• Is Part Of: New journal of chemistry. Volume 44:Number 18(2020)
• Page Start: 7552
• Page End: 7560
• Publication Date: 2020-04-29
• Subjects: Chemistry -- Periodicals; Chimie -- Périodiques; 540
• DOI: 10.1039/d0nj00863j
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1144-0546

Abstract

Abstract : Hierarchical Ni/CoFeOH and Ni/CoSe2 nanotube arrays were fabricated via a three-step strategy, and exhibited enhanced electrochemical performance for OER and HER, respectively. Abstract : The exploration and fabrication of highly effective and low cost non-precious electrocatalysts are very essential for the hydrogen production industry. Herein, for the first time we constructed and prepared Ni/CoFe hydroxide and Ni/CoSe2 electrodes with hollow nanotube array structures on conductive nickel foam by a facile two-step electrodeposition method combined with a ZnO self-template strategy. The as-prepared Ni/CoFe hydroxide and Ni/CoSe2 nanotube arrays only need a relatively low overpotential of 230 mV for OER and 89 mV for HER to achieve a current density of 20 mA cm −2 and 10 mA cm −2, respectively. Specifically, an asymmetric alkaline electrolyzer has been assembled by using Ni/CoFe hydroxide as anode and Ni/CoSe2 as cathode, which requires a low overall potential of only 1.57 V at the current density of 10 mA cm −2 and displays excellent stability for 20 h. The excellent electrocatalytic performance of the electrodes benefits from the synergistic effect of the different components and the hierarchical hollow nanotube structure with abundant active sites, fast electronic transport and sufficient diffusion channels for electrolyte and gas. The work provides a feasible way to develop highly efficient, hierarchical, hollow-structured and low-cost earth-abundant catalysts for electrocatalytic water splitting applications.