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Anodized AlCoCrFeNi high-entropy alloy for alkaline water electrolysis with ultra-high performance

阳极氧化AlCoCrFeNi高熵合金用于高效碱性电解水

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Abstract

Alkaline water electrolysis (AWE) is a prospective method for producing green hydrogen to solve the energy crisis and reduce environmental pollution. However, the hydrogen production efficiency through this process is exceptionally low because the electrodes are expensive and inefficient. In this work, a kind of high-entropy alloy (HEA), bulk AlCoCrFeNi, is used as the efficient electrode for AWE. Results show that the HEA treated by 5-min fast anodization can achieve ultra-high catalytic activities for hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions with low overpotentials of 880 and 845 mV to reach the current densities of −500 and 500 mA cm−2, respectively. For full water splitting, it only needs 3.00 V and exhibits excellent stability of more than 100 h at 500 mA cm−2. Our study demonstrates that the anodized AlCoCrFeNi HEA has promising applications as a highly efficient catalyst in industrial water electrolysis for hydrogen production, potentially addressing the energy crisis and environmental concerns.

摘要

碱性水电解(AWE)作为一种具有工业应用前景的绿色制氢方法, 能够用来改善能源短缺和环境污染问题. 然而, 由于电极材料昂贵且效率低下, 这种方法生产氢气的效率比较低. 本文采用块状AlCoCrFeNi高熵合金作为碱性电解水的有效电极. 研究发现通过快速阳极氧化(5 min)处理的高熵合金可以同时对析氢和析氧反应(HER和OER)具有超高的催化活性, 只需要8 8 0 和8 4 5 mV的过电位就可以达到−500 mA cm−2 (HER)和500 mA cm−2 (OER)的电流密度. 特别地, 该催化剂只需要3.00 V就可以达到500 mA cm−2的全解水电流密度, 并且在此电流密度下表现出超过100小时的出色稳定性. 我们的研究表明, 阳极氧化的块体AlCoCrFeNi高熵合金作为高效催化剂在工业水电解制氢中具有广阔的应用前景, 有望用于缓解环境问题和能源危机.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Multi-Year Research Grants (MYRG2020-00207-IAPME) from the University of Macau, the Science and Technology Development Fund from Macao SAR (FDCT) (0125/2018/A3, 0081/2019/AMJ, 0033/2019/AMJ, 0102/2019/A2, and 0154/2019/A3), the Nature Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2020ZD04), and Hunan Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (2020JJ2046). UM Macao PhD Scholarship is appreciated by Zhou P for the support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Applied Physics and Materials Engineering, University of Macau, Macao SAR, 999078, China

    Pengfei Zhou  (周鹏飞), Mingpeng Chen  (陈明鹏), Shuangpeng Wang  (王双鹏) & Hui Pan  (潘晖)

  2. Department of Electromechanical Engineering, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Macau, Macao SAR, 999078, China

    Po Kee Wong  (黄宝琪) & Chi Tat Kwok  (郭志达)

  3. Science and Technology on High Strength Structural Materials Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Powder Metallurgy, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, China

    Pengda Niu  (牛朋达) & Ruidi Li  (李瑞迪)

  4. College of Chemical Engineering, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, 350116, China

    Yuxin Tang  (汤育欣)

  5. Department of Physics and Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Macau, Macao SAR, 999078, China

    Hui Pan  (潘晖)

Authors
  1. Pengfei Zhou  (周鹏飞)
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  2. Po Kee Wong  (黄宝琪)
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  3. Pengda Niu  (牛朋达)
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  4. Mingpeng Chen  (陈明鹏)
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  6. Yuxin Tang  (汤育欣)
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  7. Ruidi Li  (李瑞迪)
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  8. Shuangpeng Wang  (王双鹏)
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  9. Hui Pan  (潘晖)
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Contributions

Author contributions Pan H conceived the idea. Zhou P did the electrochemical experiments and wrote the manuscript. Wong PK did the SEM and TEM measurements. Niu P and Li R prepared the AlCoCrFeNi HEA and did the analysis. Chen M conducted the in-situ Raman. Zhou P performed the XPS. Kwok CT revised the manuscript. Wang S and Tang Y analyzed the data and helped write the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yuxin Tang  (汤育欣), Ruidi Li  (李瑞迪), Shuangpeng Wang  (王双鹏) or Hui Pan  (潘晖).

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Conflict of interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Supplementary information Experimental details and supporting data are available in the online version of the paper.

Pengfei Zhou is currently a PhD student in Prof. Hui Pan’s group at the Institute of Applied Physics and Materials Engineering, University of Macau, Macao. His main research interests include the synthesis of bulk alloys and their applications in energy conversion.

Yuxin Tang is a professor at the College of Chemical Engineering, Fuzhou University. He obtained his PhD degree in materials science from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in 2013. After postdoctoral training at NTU, he worked at the University of Macau as an assistant professor in 2018–2020. His research interest is the development of advanced electrolytes and electrode materials towards high-performance energy storage devices.

Ruidi Li is a professor at the State Key Laboratory of Powder Metallurgy, Central South University. He obtained his PhD degree from Huangzhong University of Science and Tehnology (2010). His research mainly focuses on high-entropy alloys, stainless steels, Al alloys, and additive manufacturing.

Shuangpeng Wang is an assistant professor at the Institute of Applied Physics and Materials Engineering, University of Macau. He obtained his PhD degree from the State Key Laboratory of Luminescence and Applications, Changchun Institute of Optics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (2011). His research interests include low-dimensional materials and their applications in optoelectronics and surface/interface states.

Hui Pan is a professor at the Institute of Applied Physics and Materials Engineering, University of Macau. He obtained his PhD degree from the National University of Singapore in 2006. He was a scientist at the Institute of High Performance Computing (Singapore) from 2009 to 2013. His research mainly focuses on energy harvesting and storage (photocatalysis, electrocatalysis, biomass, CO2 and N2 reductions, battery, supercapacitor, and hydrogen production/storage).

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Zhou, P., Wong, P.K., Niu, P. et al. Anodized AlCoCrFeNi high-entropy alloy for alkaline water electrolysis with ultra-high performance. Sci. China Mater. 66, 1033–1041 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40843-022-2234-5

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