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Electrochemical formation of multilayered NiO film/Ni foam as a high-efficient anode for methanol electrolysis

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Abstract

A multilayered NiO film is fabricated on 3D Ni foam (NF) substrate via electrochemical cyclic voltammetry (CV) as a high-efficient methanol oxidation catalyst. We carefully studied the formation mechanism of an as-fabricated electrode and found that lower cathode potential in CV plays a key role in constructing the microstructure of this material. The as-synthesized electrode shows remarkable electrocatalytic methanol oxidation activity (161.5 mA cm−2 in 1 M KOH with 0.3 M methanol) and good stability (current retention >92% after 500 cycles) in three-electrode measurement. Moreover, the NiO film/Ni foam is further used as anode catalyst in two-electrode configured methanol-water solution electrolysis. A sharp decline of cell voltage is observed (∼170 mV) when 0.1 M methanol was added in alkaline solution. In addition, the methanol-water solution electrolysis also exhibits lower electric energy consumption (∼41.87 KWh kg−1 Hydrogen@200 mA cm−2) for hydrogen production.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. (No.21275104).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610064, People’s Republic of China

    Jinlan Xiao, Xudong Zhang, Taotao Gao & Dan Xiao

  2. Key Laboratory of Green Chemistry and Technology, Ministry of education, Department of Chemistry, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610064, People’s Republic of China

    Caixia Zhou & Dan Xiao

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  1. Jinlan Xiao
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Correspondence to Dan Xiao.

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Xiao, J., Zhang, X., Gao, T. et al. Electrochemical formation of multilayered NiO film/Ni foam as a high-efficient anode for methanol electrolysis. J Solid State Electrochem 21, 2301–2311 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10008-017-3570-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10008-017-3570-y

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