Ni0-rich Ni/NiO nanocrystals for efficient water-to‑hydrogen conversion via urea electro-oxidation

Baoxi Zhang; Shunyao Wang; Zhuo Ma; Yunfeng Qiu

doi:10.1016/j.apsusc.2019.143710

Ni⁰-rich Ni/NiO nanocrystals for efficient water-to‑hydrogen conversion via urea electro-oxidation

Baoxi Zhang
, Shunyao Wang
, Zhuo Ma^*
, Yunfeng Qiu

^*Corresponding author for this work

Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

49 Scopus citations

Abstract

It is highly desired to develop low-cost and effective non-precious metal based electrocatalysts for water-to‑hydrogen conversion assisted by urea electro-oxidation reaction. In this work, Ni⁰-rich Ni/NiO nanocrystals were facilely synthesized on the surface of acid-treated nickel foam via thermal annealing in Ar/H₂ (denoted as NF@Acid-H₂). The three-dimensional free-standing NF@Acid-H₂ electrode exhibited high HER and UOR activities at 156 mV and at 1.33 V to reach the current density of 10 mA/cm², respectively. The urea electrolyzer needed a cell voltage of 1.49 V to deliver the current density of 10 mA/cm², and could continuously generate H₂ for 20 h with negligible activity loss. Systematic study revealed that the presence of Ni⁰ played a significant role to improve both HER and UOR performance. In particular, the Ni⁰-rich Ni/NiO exhibited better catalytic performance than that of Ni⁰-less counterpart. This work proved that the high urea electrolysis performance was dependent on the rational design of non-precious metal electrocatalysts with controllable compositions and hierarchical nanostructures.

Original language	English
Article number	143710
Journal	Applied Surface Science
Volume	496
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2019.143710
State	Published - 1 Dec 2019

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 7 Affordable and Clean Energy

Keywords

Hydrogen evolution reaction
Metallic Ni
Oxygen evolution reaction
Urea oxidation reaction
Water splitting

Access to Document

10.1016/j.apsusc.2019.143710

Cite this

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title = "Ni0-rich Ni/NiO nanocrystals for efficient water-to‑hydrogen conversion via urea electro-oxidation",

abstract = "It is highly desired to develop low-cost and effective non-precious metal based electrocatalysts for water-to‑hydrogen conversion assisted by urea electro-oxidation reaction. In this work, Ni0-rich Ni/NiO nanocrystals were facilely synthesized on the surface of acid-treated nickel foam via thermal annealing in Ar/H2 (denoted as NF@Acid-H2). The three-dimensional free-standing NF@Acid-H2 electrode exhibited high HER and UOR activities at 156 mV and at 1.33 V to reach the current density of 10 mA/cm2, respectively. The urea electrolyzer needed a cell voltage of 1.49 V to deliver the current density of 10 mA/cm2, and could continuously generate H2 for 20 h with negligible activity loss. Systematic study revealed that the presence of Ni0 played a significant role to improve both HER and UOR performance. In particular, the Ni0-rich Ni/NiO exhibited better catalytic performance than that of Ni0-less counterpart. This work proved that the high urea electrolysis performance was dependent on the rational design of non-precious metal electrocatalysts with controllable compositions and hierarchical nanostructures.",

keywords = "Hydrogen evolution reaction, Metallic Ni, Oxygen evolution reaction, Urea oxidation reaction, Water splitting",

author = "Baoxi Zhang and Shunyao Wang and Zhuo Ma and Yunfeng Qiu",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019 Elsevier B.V.",

year = "2019",

month = dec,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1016/j.apsusc.2019.143710",

language = "英语",

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AU - Zhang, Baoxi

AU - Wang, Shunyao

AU - Ma, Zhuo

AU - Qiu, Yunfeng

PY - 2019/12/1

Y1 - 2019/12/1

N2 - It is highly desired to develop low-cost and effective non-precious metal based electrocatalysts for water-to‑hydrogen conversion assisted by urea electro-oxidation reaction. In this work, Ni0-rich Ni/NiO nanocrystals were facilely synthesized on the surface of acid-treated nickel foam via thermal annealing in Ar/H2 (denoted as NF@Acid-H2). The three-dimensional free-standing NF@Acid-H2 electrode exhibited high HER and UOR activities at 156 mV and at 1.33 V to reach the current density of 10 mA/cm2, respectively. The urea electrolyzer needed a cell voltage of 1.49 V to deliver the current density of 10 mA/cm2, and could continuously generate H2 for 20 h with negligible activity loss. Systematic study revealed that the presence of Ni0 played a significant role to improve both HER and UOR performance. In particular, the Ni0-rich Ni/NiO exhibited better catalytic performance than that of Ni0-less counterpart. This work proved that the high urea electrolysis performance was dependent on the rational design of non-precious metal electrocatalysts with controllable compositions and hierarchical nanostructures.

AB - It is highly desired to develop low-cost and effective non-precious metal based electrocatalysts for water-to‑hydrogen conversion assisted by urea electro-oxidation reaction. In this work, Ni0-rich Ni/NiO nanocrystals were facilely synthesized on the surface of acid-treated nickel foam via thermal annealing in Ar/H2 (denoted as NF@Acid-H2). The three-dimensional free-standing NF@Acid-H2 electrode exhibited high HER and UOR activities at 156 mV and at 1.33 V to reach the current density of 10 mA/cm2, respectively. The urea electrolyzer needed a cell voltage of 1.49 V to deliver the current density of 10 mA/cm2, and could continuously generate H2 for 20 h with negligible activity loss. Systematic study revealed that the presence of Ni0 played a significant role to improve both HER and UOR performance. In particular, the Ni0-rich Ni/NiO exhibited better catalytic performance than that of Ni0-less counterpart. This work proved that the high urea electrolysis performance was dependent on the rational design of non-precious metal electrocatalysts with controllable compositions and hierarchical nanostructures.

KW - Hydrogen evolution reaction

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KW - Oxygen evolution reaction

KW - Urea oxidation reaction

KW - Water splitting

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