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Ultrathin Ni(0)‐Embedded Ni(OH) 2 Heterostructured Nanosheets with Enhanced Electrochemical Overall Water Splitting
Author(s) -
Dai Lei,
Chen ZheNing,
Li Liuxiao,
Yin Peiqun,
Liu Zhengqing,
Zhang Hua
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
advanced materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.707
H-Index - 527
eISSN - 1521-4095
pISSN - 0935-9648
DOI - 10.1002/adma.201906915
Subject(s) - water splitting , oxygen evolution , materials science , catalysis , electrolysis of water , electrolyte , electrochemistry , anode , noble metal , electrolysis , nickel , alkaline water electrolysis , chemical engineering , inorganic chemistry , hydrogen , cathode , electrocatalyst , metal , electrode , metallurgy , chemistry , photocatalysis , biochemistry , organic chemistry , engineering
The efficiency of splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen is highly dependent on the catalyst used. Herein, ultrathin Ni(0)‐embedded Ni(OH) 2 heterostructured nanosheets, referred to as Ni/Ni(OH) 2 nanosheets, with superior water splitting activity are synthesized by a partial reduction strategy. This synthetic strategy confers the heterostructured Ni/Ni(OH) 2 nanosheets with abundant Ni(0)‐Ni(II) active interfaces for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and Ni(II) defects as transitional active sites for oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The obtained Ni/Ni(OH) 2 nanosheets exhibit noble metal‐like electrocatalytic activities toward overall water splitting in alkaline condition, to offer 10 mA cm −2 in HER and OER, the required overpotentials are only 77 and 270 mV, respectively. Based on such an outstanding activity, a water splitting electrolysis cell using the Ni/Ni(OH) 2 nanosheets as the cathode and anode electrocatalysts has been successfully built. When the output voltage of the electrolytic cell is 1.59 V, a current density of 10 mA cm −2 can be obtained. Moreover, the durability of Ni/Ni(OH) 2 nanosheets in the alkaline electrolyte is much better than that of noble metals. No obvious performance decay is observed after 20 h of catalysis. This facile strategy paves the way for designing highly active non‐precious‐metal catalyst to generate both hydrogen and oxygen by electrolyzing water at room temperature.