Exploring the hydrogen evolution capabilities of earth-abundant ternary metal borides for neutral and alkaline water-splitting. (10th September 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Fernandes, R.; Chunduri, A.; Gupta, S.; Kadrekar, R.; Arya, A.; Miotello, A.; Patel, N.
• Is Part Of: Electrochimica acta. Volume 354(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-09-10
• Subjects: Ternary metal borides -- Hydrogen evolution reaction -- Earth-abundant electrocatalysts -- Neutral water electrolysis -- H-adsorption energy; Electrochemistry -- Periodicals; Electrochemistry, Industrial -- Periodicals; 541.37
• DOI: 10.1016/j.electacta.2020.136738
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0013-4686

Abstract

Abstract: Amorphous ternary metal borides in the form of Co-M-B (where, M = Fe, Ni, Cu, Mo, Mn, W or Cr) were developed for electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution in neutral and alkaline solutions. Except for Co-Cr-B, all the Co-M-B catalysts showed better hydrogen evolution rate than Co-B, with the lowest overpotential of 95 mV and 67 mV (at 10 mA/cm 2 ) recorded for optimized Co-Mo-B catalyst, in pH 7 and pH 14, respectively. The reasons for enhancement in electrocatalytic rate, with inclusion of a second metal in Co-B, were investigated by considering several material related factors, such as, physical and electrochemical surface area, turn-over frequency, surface elemental states & composition and charge-transfer resistance. These experimental results were complemented with computational investigations to identify the most suitable sites for hydrogen adsorption and determine their H-adsorption energies. In the end, industrial feasibility of the developed Co-M-B catalysts was illustrated by performing stability and recycling tests.