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Facile synthesis of Ni/sepiolite and its excellent performance toward electrocatalytic ethanol oxidation

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Abstract

Effective and stable catalysts toward ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR) is very important for the application of direct ethanol fuel cells (DEFCs). This research reports a facile synthesis of Ni/sepiolite (Ni/SEP) catalyst through incipient wetness impregnation method, which has large amount of active sites and excellent electrochemical activity toward EOR. Through scanning electron microscope with energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), nickel was found to distribute evenly on the fiber structure of sepiolite through ion exchange with the element magnesium without altering the main structure. With a geometric surface area of 0.07 cm2, Ni/SEP had a larger electrochemical surface area 0.44 m2 g−1, lower onset potential of 0.28 V (vs. SCE), higher peak current density (258.5 mA cm−2), and smaller Tafel slope (20 mV dec−1), indicating a superior electrochemical activity toward EOR. Within the experimental conditions, it was observed to be a diffusion-controlled process based on the linear relationship between peak current and root of scan rates, and the reaction could be accelerated by the increase of both C2H5OH and KOH concentrations. Through the study of cyclic voltammetry as well as calculation of apparent activation energy, an electrolytic-chemical (EC) reaction mechanism was suggested with high valence Ni species as the electron transfer carrier.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21876111 & 51208299), and Science and Technology Development Project in University of Shanghai for Science and Technology (No. 2018KJFZ101 & 2020KJFZ112).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environment and Architecture, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200093, People’s Republic of China

    Liang Li, Junkai Zhao, Yu Sun & Xinming Yang

  2. School of Environment, Tsinghua University, No. 30 Shuangqing Rd., Haidian District, Beijing, 100084, People’s Republic of China

    Yu Sun & Jianjun Chen

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  1. Liang Li
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  2. Junkai Zhao
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  3. Yu Sun
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  4. Xinming Yang
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Contributions

LL prepared the manuscript, and contributed partially to the manuscript revision. JZ performed the experiments and was responsible for data acquisition. YS and XY helped with literature searching and data analysis. JC proposed the research hypothesis, designed experimental plans, and assisted with manuscript editing and revision process. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jianjun Chen.

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Li, L., Zhao, J., Sun, Y. et al. Facile synthesis of Ni/sepiolite and its excellent performance toward electrocatalytic ethanol oxidation. J Appl Electrochem 54, 519–530 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10800-023-01990-0

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