Journal of Inorganic Materials, Volume. 38, Issue 6, 647(2023)
Nickel-based electrocatalytic material is considered one of the cost-optimal transition metal catalysts in alkaline water electrolysis due to its accessible industrial-applicability. Nevertheless, slow hydrogen evolution kinetics and low activation are still the grand challenges. Herein, we report a three-dimentional porous cluster structure vanadium oxide implanting into nickel-copper alloy electrocatalyst with phase-separation metallic nickel and copper as the main crystal phase mixed up with amorphous vanadium oxide phase, which is fabricated in situ on nickel foam (NF) by one-step cyclic voltammetry. The tri-hierarchical porous micro-nano structure of VOx-NiCu/NF was constructed by nanoparticles of whichmicropores were created by clusters. This nickel foam micropores endows the target catalyst with a 28-fold increased electrochemically active surface area (ECSA), comparable to Pt-like catalytic activity towards hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Encouragingly, VOx-NiCu/NF needs merely 35 mV (η10) to drive -10 mA·cm-2 towards HER in alkaline medium. In addition, the as-prepared VOx-NiCu/NF exhibits excellent long-time stability and durability. These data suggest that the formation of cluster structure, piled by nanoparticles, creates a large number of surface micropores, which greatly enhance the active sites and provide abundant material transfer channels for HER. Formation of NiCu alloy and amorphous V2O5 phase synergically boost the intrinsic HER activity to a certain extent. Simultaneously, the ideal composition and unique structural characteristics of VOx-NiCu/NF contribute to the superior catalytic performance with the structural advantage responsible for the predominant effect. On the basis of kinetic analysis, the HER at VOx-NiCu/NF proceed via a Volmer-Heyrovsky mechanism, where chemical desorption of hydrogen adsorbed is regarded as the rate-limiting step. Therefore, this study lays a foundation for promotion electrocatalytic hydrogen production.
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Qiangqiang SUN, Zixuan CHEN, Ziyue YANG, Yimeng WANG, Baoyue CAO.
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Received: Oct. 24, 2022
Accepted: --
Published Online: Oct. 17, 2023
The Author Email: Baoyue CAO (231052@slxy.edu.cn)