In-situ formed NiS/Ni coupled interface for efficient oxygen evolution and hydrogen evolution

doi:10.1016/j.jmst.2019.08.042

Abstract

Abstract:

High-performance electrocatalysts for water splitting are desired due to the urgent requirement of clean and sustainable hydrogen production. To reduce the energy barrier, herein, we adopt a facile in-situ surface modification strategy to develop a low-cost and efficient electrocatalyst for water splitting. The synthesized mulberry-like NiS/Ni nanoparticles exhibit excellent catalytic performance for water splitting. Small overpotentials of 301 and 161 mV are needed to drive the current density of 10 mA cm^-2 accompanying with remarkably low Tafel slopes of 46 and 74 mV dec^-1 for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), respectively. Meanwhile, a robust electrochemical stability is demonstrated. Further high-resolution X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analyses reveal that the intrinsic HER activity improvement is attributed to the electron-enriched S on the strongly coupled NiS and Ni interface, which simultaneously facilitates the important electron transfer, consistent with the electrochemical impedance results. The post characterizations demonstrate that surface reconstructed oxyhydroxide contributes to the OER activity and NiS/Ni is an OER precatalyst. This structure construction with in-situ formation of active interface provides an effective way to design efficient electrocatalysts for energy conversion.

Key words: Water splitting, Interface construction, Electrocatalyst, Bifunctional, In-situ synthesis

Chaoyi Yan, Jianwen Huang, Chunyang Wu, Yaoyao Li, Yuchuan Tan, Luying Zhang, Yinghui Sun, Xiaona Huang, Jie Xiong. In-situ formed NiS/Ni coupled interface for efficient oxygen evolution and hydrogen evolution[J]. J. Mater. Sci. Technol., 2020, 42: 10-16.

Figures/Tables 7

Fig. 1. XRD patterns of Ni and NiS/Ni samples. Inset illustrates the surface structure evolution after sulfuration.

Fig. 2. Morphology characterizations: (a) and (b) SEM images of Ni nanoparticles, (c) and (d) SEM images of NiS/Ni samples under different magnifications, showing the in situ formed mulberry-like heterostructure. Inset shows the mulberry structure.

Fig. 3. Morphology and structure characterizations: (a) TEM image of Ni nanoparticles, (b) TEM image of NiS/Ni composite nanoparticles, (c) HRTEM image of NiS/Ni composite showing the interface coupling, (d) EDX elemental mapping images.

Fig. 4. OER performance evaluation: (a) polarization curves of Ni and NiS/Ni nanoparticles at different sulfuration time, (b) corresponding Tafel slope, (c) activity comparison according to Tafel slope and potential at current density of 30 mA cm-2, (d) I?t stability measurement at overpotential of 300 mV. Inset implies the fast formation and release of O2 bubbles.

Fig. 5. HER performance measurements: (a) polarization curves of Ni and NiS/Ni nanoparticles at different sulfuration time, (b) corresponding Tafel slope, (c) activity comparison according to Tafel slope and overpotential at current density of 10 mA cm-2, (d) Nyquist plots of Ni and NiS/Ni nanoparticles at different sulfuration time, (e) Cdl calculations for Ni and NiS/Ni nanoparticles at different sulfuration time, (f) I?t stability measurement. Inset implies the fast formation and release of H2 bubbles.

Fig. 6. XPS characterizations before and after OER: (a) Ni 2p spectra of Ni, NiS/Ni-90 and post-OER NiS/Ni-90 electrodes, (b) S 2p spectra of initial NiS/Ni-90 and post-OER NiS/Ni-90 electrodes, (c) O 1s spectra of initial NiS/Ni-90 and post-OER NiS/Ni-90 electrodes.

Fig. 7. (a) and (b) SEM images of NiS/Ni-90 electrode after OER stability measurement, showing formed amorphous species and nanosheets on the surface.

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