Production of NiO/N-doped carbon hybrid and its electrocatalytic performance for oxygen evolution reactions

• Published in: Carbon Letters 2020-10, Vol.30 (5), p.485-491
• Main Authors: Seok, Sujin, Jang, Dawoon, Kim, Haeju, Park, Sungjin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Atoms & subatomic particles; Carbon; Electrocatalysts; Electrochemistry; Electrodes; Ethanol; Hybridization; Hybrids; Iron; Nanoparticles; Nickel oxides; Oxygen evolution reactions; Scanning electron microscopy; Size distribution; Spectrum analysis; Voltammetry; Water splitting
• ISSN: 1976-4251; 2233-4998
• DOI: 10.1007/s42823-019-00118-9

Oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is an essential step at an anode in electrochemical water-splitting process and requires efficient electrocatalysts to reduce overpotentials. Although precious metal-based materials, such as RuO2, IrO2 and their hybrids with other components, performed excellently as OER electrocatalysts, their high cost has limited practical applications. Consequently, earth-abundant metal components including Fe, Co, and Ni have been investigated as alternatives. In this work, the hybridization of Ni-containing species with conductive carbon-based materials was used to prevent aggregation of active species and improve electrochemical catalytic performance. A new hybrid material composed of NiO nanoparticles and N-doped carbon materials was prepared. The NiO particles with a narrow size distribution were well dispersed on the surface of carbon-based materials. The hybrid showed improved electrocatalytic performance for OER than single components of NiO and N-doped carbon materials.