Ultrathin High Surface Area Nickel Boride (NixB) Nanosheets as Highly Efficient Electrocatalyst for Oxygen Evolution

The overriding obstacle to mass production of hydrogen from water as the premium fuel for powering our planet is the frustratingly slow kinetics of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Additionally, inadequate understanding of the key barriers of the OER is a hindrance to insightful design of advanc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Advanced energy materials 2017-09, Vol.7 (17), p.n/a
Main Authors: Masa, Justus, Sinev, Ilya, Mistry, Hemma, Ventosa, Edgar, de la Mata, Maria, Arbiol, Jordi, Muhler, Martin, Roldan Cuenya, Beatriz, Schuhmann, Wolfgang
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Catalysts
Evolution
hydrogen evolution
Hydrogen production
Mass production
Nanosheets
Nickel
nickel boride
Oxygen
oxygen evolution
Reaction kinetics
Surface area
water oxidation
Water splitting
XAFS
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Summary:The overriding obstacle to mass production of hydrogen from water as the premium fuel for powering our planet is the frustratingly slow kinetics of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Additionally, inadequate understanding of the key barriers of the OER is a hindrance to insightful design of advanced OER catalysts. This study presents ultrathin amorphous high‐surface area nickel boride (NixB) nanosheets as a low‐cost, very efficient and stable catalyst for the OER for electrochemical water splitting. The catalyst affords 10 mA cm−2 at 0.38 V overpotential during OER in 1.0 m KOH, reducing to only 0.28 V at 20 mA cm−2 when supported on nickel foam, which ranks it among the best reported nonprecious catalysts for oxygen evolution. Operando X‐ray absorption fine‐structure spectroscopy measurements reveal prevalence of NiOOH, as well as Ni‐B under OER conditions, owing to a Ni‐B core@nickel oxyhydroxide shell (Ni‐B@NiOxH) structure, and increase in disorder of the NiOxH layer, thus revealing important insight into the transient states of the catalyst during oxygen evolution. Ultrathin high‐surface area nickel boride nanosheets supported on nickel foam show outstanding activity in catalyzing the oxygen evolution reaction, ranking among the best nonprecious catalysts for oxygen evolution reported to date.
ISSN:1614-6832
1614-6840
DOI:10.1002/aenm.201700381