scholarly journals Stainless Steel as A Bi-Functional Electrocatalyst—A Top-Down Approach

Materials ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (13) ◽  
pp. 2128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joakim Ekspong ◽  
Thomas Wågberg

For a hydrogen economy to be viable, clean and economical hydrogen production methods are vital. Electrolysis of water is a promising hydrogen production technique with zero emissions, but suffer from relatively high production costs. In order to make electrolysis of water sustainable, abundant, and efficient materials has to replace expensive and scarce noble metals as electrocatalysts in the reaction cells. Herein, we study activated stainless steel as a bi-functional electrocatalyst for the full water splitting reaction by taking advantage of nickel and iron suppressed within the bulk. The final electrocatalyst consists of a stainless steel mesh with a modified surface of layered NiFe nanosheets. By using a top down approach, the nanosheets stay well anchored to the surface and maintain an excellent electrical connection to the bulk structure. At ambient temperature, the activated stainless steel electrodes produce 10 mA/cm2 at a cell voltage of 1.78 V and display an onset for water splitting at 1.68 V in 1M KOH, which is close to benchmarking nanosized catalysts. Furthermore, we use a scalable activation method using no externally added electrocatalyst, which could be a practical and cheap alternative to traditionally catalyst-coated electrodes.

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuxue Wei ◽  
Honglin Qin ◽  
Jinxin Deng ◽  
Xiaomeng Cheng ◽  
Mengdie Cai ◽  
...  

Introduction: Solar-driven photocatalytic hydrogen production from water splitting is one of the most promising solutions to satisfy the increasing demands of a rapidly developing society. CdS has emerged as a representative semiconductor photocatalyst due to its suitable band gap and band position. However, the poor stability and rapid charge recombination of CdS restrict its application for hydrogen production. The strategy of using a cocatalyst is typically recognized as an effective approach for improving the activity, stability, and selectivity of photocatalysts. In this review, recent developments in CdS cocatalysts for hydrogen production from water splitting under visible-light irradiation are summarized. In particular, the factors affecting the photocatalytic performance and new cocatalyst design, as well as the general classification of cocatalysts, are discussed, which includes a single cocatalyst containing noble-metal cocatalysts, non-noble metals, metal-complex cocatalysts, metal-free cocatalysts, and multi-cocatalysts. Finally, future opportunities and challenges with respect to the optimization and theoretical design of cocatalysts toward the CdS photocatalytic hydrogen evolution are described. Background: Photocatalytic hydrogen evolution from water splitting using photocatalyst semiconductors is one of the most promising solutions to satisfy the increasing demands of a rapidly developing society. CdS has emerged as a representative semiconductor photocatalyst due to its suitable band gap and band position. However, the poor stability and rapid charge recombination of CdS restrict its application for hydrogen production. The strategy of using a cocatalyst is typically recognized as an effective approach for improving the activity, stability, and selectivity of photocatalysts. Methods: This review summarizes the recent developments in CdS cocatalysts for hydrogen production from water splitting under visible-light irradiation. Results: Recent developments in CdS cocatalysts for hydrogen production from water splitting under visible-light irradiation are summarized. The factors affecting the photocatalytic performance and new cocatalyst design, as well as the general classification of cocatalysts, are discussed, which includes a single cocatalyst containing noble-metal cocatalysts, non-noble metals, metal-complex cocatalysts, metal-free cocatalysts, and multi-cocatalysts. Finally, future opportunities and challenges with respect to the optimization and theoretical design of cocatalysts toward the CdS photocatalytic hydrogen evolution are described. Conclusion: The state-of-the-art CdS for producing hydrogen from photocatalytic water splitting under visible light is discussed. The future opportunities and challenges with respect to the optimization and theoretical design of cocatalysts toward the CdS photocatalytic hydrogen evolution are also described.


Research ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Huanhuan Liu ◽  
Zhenhua Yan ◽  
Xiang Chen ◽  
Jinhan Li ◽  
Le Zhang ◽  
...  

The facile synthesis of highly active and stable bifunctional electrocatalysts to catalyze water splitting is attractive but challenging. Herein, we report the electrodeposition of Pt-decorated Ni(OH)2/CeO2 (PNC) hybrid as an efficient and robust bifunctional electrocatalyst. The graphite-supported PNC catalyst delivers superior hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activities over the benchmark Pt/C and RuO2, respectively. For overall water electrolysis, the PNC hybrid only requires a cell voltage of 1.45 V at 10 mA cm−2 and sustains over 85 h at 1000 mA cm−2. The remarkable HER/OER performances are attributed to the superhydrophilicity and multiple effects of PNC, in which Ni(OH)2 and CeO2 accelerate HER on Pt due to promoted water dissociation and strong electronic interaction, while the electron-pulling Ce cations facilitate the generation of high-valence Ni OER-active species. These results suggest the promising application of PNC for H2 production from water electrolysis.


2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (19) ◽  
pp. 2393-2396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bing Chang ◽  
Shuai Hao ◽  
Zhixiang Ye ◽  
Yingchun Yang

An amorphous Ni–P alloy shell electrodeposited on a CuO nanowire array to synergistically boost the catalytic activity toward alkaline water splitting is reported, and this core@shell CuO@Ni–P nanowire array is durable with a cell voltage of only 1.71 V reaching a current density of 30 mA cm−2 using a two-electrode configuration in an alkaline water electrolyzer.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 312-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harsharaj S. Jadhav ◽  
Animesh Roy ◽  
Bezawit Z. Desalegan ◽  
Jeong Gil Seo

A room-temperature synthesized NiFeCe2 electrocatalyst delivered a current density of 10 mA cm−2 at a cell voltage of 1.59 V when used as the electrolyzer.


2020 ◽  
Vol 274 ◽  
pp. 122826 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heba H. Farrag ◽  
Sayed Youssef Sayed ◽  
Nageh K. Allam ◽  
Ahmad M. Mohammad

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nannan Chen ◽  
Yanhong Wang ◽  
Xiaoqiang Du ◽  
Xiaoshuang Zhang

The results demonstrate that Cu–Ni–S/NF//Cu–Ni–P/NF pairs show superior water splitting performance with only requiring a cell voltage of 1.50 V to achieve a current density of 20 mA cm−2.


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (19) ◽  
pp. 9377-9390 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tingting Liu ◽  
Mian Li ◽  
Chuanlai Jiao ◽  
Mehboob Hassan ◽  
Xiangjie Bo ◽  
...  

A (−) Ni3N/CMFs/Ni3N‖Ni3N/CMFs/Ni3N (+) electrolysis cell requires a cell voltage of only 1.65 V to achieve a current density of 20 mA cm−2.


2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (22) ◽  
pp. 18201-18207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoqiang Du ◽  
Qibin Wang ◽  
Xiaoshuang Zhang

NiO/Ni3S2 affords a current density of 10 mA cm−2 in 1.0 M KOH at a cell voltage of 1.59 V, i.e., comparable to the commercial 20 wt% IrO2/C–40 wt% Pt/C couple (1.55 V at 10 mA cm−2).


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Wang ◽  
Lili Han ◽  
Bolong Huang ◽  
Qi Shao ◽  
Huolin L. Xin ◽  
...  

AbstractPursuing active and durable water splitting electrocatalysts is of vital significance for solving the sluggish kinetics of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) process in energy supply. Herein, theoretical calculations identify that the local distortion-strain effect in amorphous RuTe2 system abnormally sensitizes the Te-pπ coupling capability and enhances the electron-transfer of Ru-sites, in which the excellent inter-orbital p-d transfers determine strong electronic activities for boosting OER performance. Thus, a robust electrocatalyst based on amorphous RuTe2 porous nanorods (PNRs) is successfully fabricated. In the acidic water splitting, a-RuTe2 PNRs exhibit a superior performance, which only require a cell voltage of 1.52 V to reach a current density of 10 mA cm−2. Detailed investigations show that the high density of defects combine with oxygen atoms to form RuOxHy species, which are conducive to the OER. This work offers valuable insights for constructing robust electrocatalysts based on theoretical calculations guided by rational design and amorphous materials.


Author(s):  
Phan Khanh Linh Tran ◽  
Min Sung Kim ◽  
Thanh Hai Nguyen ◽  
Thanh D Tran ◽  
Nam Hoon Kim ◽  
...  

Abstract In this work, we used an interfacial engineering method to investigate a novel hybrid of two-dimensional cobalt sulfide-Mxene (2D CoS-Mo2TiC2) heterostructure supported by a three-dimensional foam substrate. The modification electronic properties caused by unique interfacial interactions resulted in a significant increase in the number of electroactive sites and charge transfer ability, thereby accelerating kinetics of hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in an alkaline medium. The catalyst required overpotential of 248.2 and 310 mV at a current response of 50 mA cm-2 for HER and OER, respectively, along with a remarkable stability. In addition, a two-electrode electrolyzer derived from the developed 2D CoS-Mo2TiC2 catalyst showed a cell voltage of 1.74 V at 10 mA cm-2 and a good stability during 25 h continuous operation. The achieved results were associated to the formation of a unique interfacial heterostructure with the strong interaction between two material phases, which effectively modified electronic structure and surface chemistry, thereby leading to the enhancement of catalytic performance. The study offered a potential route to synthesize new catalyst for green hydrogen production via water splitting.


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