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Facile self-oxidized Ni nano-foam as high-performance catalyst for hydrogen and oxygen evolution

简单易得的自氧化纳米泡沫镍用于高性能析氢和析氧催化

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Abstract

Development of high-performance catalysts with facile, self-supporting, simple and noble-metal-free features for hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions (HER and OER) is a long-lasting pursuit. Herein, a facile self-oxidized Ni nano-foam with self-supporting nanoporosity is obtained by single-step dealloying of Mg80Ni20 metallic glass ribbons. The Ni nano-foam exhibits superior HER performance with an overpotential of 33.1 and 71.4 mV at the current density of 10 and 100 mA cm−2, and low OER overpotential of 330 mV at 10 mA cm−2. Outstanding long-term stability up to 100 h is confirmed for both HER and OER. A water electrolyzer based on the Ni nano-foam couple shows good stability and remarkable activity for overall water splitting, which requires 1.58 V to reach 10 mA cm−2. The geometry features of the Ni nano-foam, i.e., three-dimensional structure, ultrafine size, high porosity and large surface area are highly beneficial for catalytic activity. The synergic effect of the Ni/NiO composite at the ligament skin is confirmed to decrease the free energy for hydrogen binding, facilitate the H−OH bond breaking and accelerate OH− ion formation, which significantly improves the intrinsic HER activity. The outstanding HER and OER performances of the self-oxidized Ni nano-foam validate the metal nano-foams as promising catalyst candidates, especially in view of the ultrafine nanoporous, self-supporting, composition regulation, single-step synthesis and massive fabrication features.

摘要

开发组成简单、 无贵金属、 制备简洁的自支撑析氢、 析氧催化反应(HER和OER)催化剂是电解水的关键需求之一. 本文以Mg80Ni20非晶合金薄带为前驱体, 采用一步脱合金法制备了具有自支撑结构的自氧化纳米泡沫镍, 在电流密度为10 mA cm−2时HER和OER的过电位仅分别为33.1和330 mV, 且均具有长达100 h的长期稳定性. 基于纳米泡沫镍的水电解槽达到10 mA cm−2的外加电压仅为1.58 V. 纳米泡沫镍独特的三维超细多孔结构显著促进了其表观活性, 同时其Ni/NiO复合结构显著提高了本征HER活性. 本工作验证了纳米泡沫金属是一种有潜力的高性能催化材料.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52271148, 51971006 and 51971092) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2023MS092).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Advanced Materials, North China Electric Power University, Beijing, 102206, China

    Hongjie Xu  (徐洪杰) & Zhiyong Xue  (薛志勇)

  2. Key Laboratory of Aerospace Materials and Performance (Ministry of Education), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, 100191, China

    Xinchao Wang  (王新朝) & Tao Zhang  (张涛)

  3. Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials Processing Technology, Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Wei Zhao  (赵威), Ruijuan Guo  (郭瑞娟), Yang Shao  (邵洋) & Kefu Yao  (姚可夫)

  4. Center for Advanced Analysis and Computational Science, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, 450001, China

    Tao Zhang  (张涛)

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  1. Hongjie Xu  (徐洪杰)
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  2. Xinchao Wang  (王新朝)
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  3. Wei Zhao  (赵威)
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  6. Tao Zhang  (张涛)
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  7. Yang Shao  (邵洋)
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  8. Kefu Yao  (姚可夫)
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Contributions

Author contributions Xu H conceived the study and carried out methodology, investigation, visualization and draft-writing with the aid of Zhao W, Guo R, Xue Z and Shao Y. Wang X performed the DFT study with the resources and foundation supplied by Zhang T. Yao K supervised the entire study and offered the main foundation. All authors contributed to the general discussion.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Hongjie Xu  (徐洪杰) or Kefu Yao  (姚可夫).

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

Additional information

Hongjie Xu received his PhD degree in materials science and engineering from Beihang University in 2019. He was a postdoc at Tsinghua University from 2019 to 2022. Since 2023, he has been an assistant professor at the Institute for Advanced Materials, North China Electric Power University. His current research interests are focused on the design and application of metallic glasses and nanoporous metals.

Kefu Yao received his PhD degree from Tsinghua University in 1989. He worked as a postdoc at the University of Science and Technology Beijing from 1989 to 1992, and at Kyoto University as a JSPS fellow from 1992 to 1995. Then, he joined Tsinghua University as a professor. He is mainly engaged in the fabrication and application of advanced metal materials such as amorphous alloy, high-entropy alloy and nanocrystalline alloy.

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Xu, H., Wang, X., Zhao, W. et al. Facile self-oxidized Ni nano-foam as high-performance catalyst for hydrogen and oxygen evolution. Sci. China Mater. 66, 3855–3864 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40843-023-2522-y

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