N-Doped Graphene-Decorated NiCo Alloy Coupled with Mesoporous NiCoMoO Nano-sheet Heterojunction for Enhanced Water Electrolysis Activity at High Current Density

• Published in: Nano-micro letters 2021-02, Vol.13 (1), p.77-13, Article 77
• Main Authors: Qian, Guangfu, Chen, Jinli, Yu, Tianqi, Luo, Lin, Yin, Shibin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Catalyst; Catalytic activity; Current density; Decoration; Electrocatalysis; Electrolysis; Engineering; Graphene; Heterojunctions; High current; High current density; Hydrogen production; Intermetallic compounds; Mesoporous nano-sheet; Metal foams; N-doped graphene-decorated NiCo alloy; Nanoscale Science and Technology; Nanotechnology; Nanotechnology and Microengineering; Noble metals; Oxygen evolution reactions; Water electrolysis; Water splitting
• ISSN: 2311-6706; 2150-5551; 2150-5551
• DOI: 10.1007/s40820-021-00607-5

Highlights N-doped graphene-coated structure and mesoporous nano-sheet can efficiently boost active sites and stability for hydrogen and oxygen evolution reaction. NiCo@C-NiCoMoO/NF exhibits low overpotentials for HER (266 mV) and OER (390 mV) at ± 1000 mA cm −2 . For water electrolysis, it can hold at 1000 mA cm −2 for 43 h in 6.0 M KOH + 60 °C condition. Developing highly effective and stable non-noble metal-based bifunctional catalyst working at high current density is an urgent issue for water electrolysis (WE). Herein, we prepare the N-doped graphene-decorated NiCo alloy coupled with mesoporous NiCoMoO nano-sheet grown on 3D nickel foam (NiCo@C-NiCoMoO/NF) for water splitting. NiCo@C-NiCoMoO/NF exhibits outstanding activity with low overpotentials for hydrogen and oxygen evolution reaction (HER: 39/266 mV; OER: 260/390 mV) at ± 10 and ± 1000 mA cm −2 . More importantly, in 6.0 M KOH solution at 60 °C for WE, it only requires 1.90 V to reach 1000 mA cm −2 and shows excellent stability for 43 h, exhibiting the potential for actual application. The good performance can be assigned to N-doped graphene-decorated NiCo alloy and mesoporous NiCoMoO nano-sheet, which not only increase the intrinsic activity and expose abundant catalytic activity sites, but also enhance its chemical and mechanical stability. This work thus could provide a promising material for industrial hydrogen production.