Nickel-carbonate nanowire array: An efficient and durable electrocatalyst for water oxidation under nearly neutral conditions

Abstract

It is highly attractive but still remains a great challenge to develop an efficient electrocatalyst for oxygen evolution reaction under nearly neutral conditions. In this work, we report the transformation of Ni₃S₂ nanowire array on nickel foam into the amorphous nickel carbonate nanowire array on nickel foam (NiCO₃/NF). The resulting NiCO₃/NF shows high electrocatalytic activity towards water oxidation and affords current density of 50 mA·cm⁻² at overpotential of 395 mV in 1.0 mol·L⁻¹ KHCO₃. Moreover, this NiCO₃/NF is also durable with a long-term electrochemical durability of 60 h. This catalyst electrode achieves a high turnover frequency of 0.21 mol O₂·s⁻¹ at the overpotential of 500 mV.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

water oxidation / NiCO₃/NF / nearly neutral conditions / superior activity / electocatalyst

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21575137), the Open Project of State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base for Nonmetal Composites and Functional Materials (No. 16kffk04) and the Key Lab of Process Analysis and Control of Sichuan Universities (No. 2016001). We also appreciate Hui Wang from the Analytical & Testing Center of Sichuan University for her help with SEM characterization.

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-018-1717-8 and is accessible for authorized users.

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