Biomimicry-inspired fish scale-like NiN/FeNiN/NF superhydrophilic/superaerophobic nanoarrays displaying high electrocatalytic performance

• Published in: Nanoscale 2023-01, Vol.15 (4), p.1813-1823
• Main Authors: Dong, Yucheng, Wu, Yutai, Wang, Xuyun, Wang, Hui, Ren, Jianwei, Wang, Peng, Pan, Lei, Wang, Guoqiang, Wang, Rongfang
• Format: Article
• ISSN: 2040-3364; 2040-3372
• DOI: 10.1039/d2nr05911h

The mass transfer efficiency and structural stability of the electrode are critical for industrialized water electrolysis operations. Herein, the biomimicry-inspired design of Ni 3 N/FeNi 3 N/NF nanoarrays with a fish scale-like structure, which endowed the Ni 3 N/FeNi 3 N/NF nanoarrays with rapid infiltration of aqueous solution within 60 ms and 169° bubble contact angle, is demonstrated. The optimal Ni 3 N/FeNi 3 N/NF sample displayed catalytic activity with hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) overpotentials of only 48 mV at 10 mA cm −2 and 102 mV at 100 mA cm −2 . Similarly, the overpotential of the anodic-coupled urea oxidation reaction (UOR) was only 1.3 V at 10 mA cm −2 and 1.35 V at 100 mA cm −2 . Besides, the small impact resulting from the rapid bubble extraction within the Ni 3 N/FeNi 3 N/NF nanoarrays ensured excellent HER cycling stability over 100 h at a current density of 50 mA cm −2 . The further scale-up experiment suggests the industrialization prospects of the prepared Ni 3 N/FeNi 3 N/NF electrocatalysts. This figure illustrates the electrolysis system at the fish body, power supply at the tail and the cathode (HER)/anode (UOR) catalyzed the designed catalysts with the superhydrophilic and superaerophobic properties at two shark fins.