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Crystallinity‐Modulated Electrocatalytic Activity of a Nickel(II) Borate Thin Layer on Ni 3 B for Efficient Water Oxidation
Author(s) -
Jiang WenJie,
Niu Shuai,
Tang Tang,
Zhang QingHua,
Liu XiaoZhi,
Zhang Yun,
Chen YuYun,
Li JiHui,
Gu Lin,
Wan LiJun,
Hu JinSong
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/anie.201703183
Subject(s) - overpotential , electrocatalyst , tafel equation , crystallinity , nickel , materials science , catalysis , inorganic chemistry , electrochemistry , boron , chemical engineering , amorphous solid , chemistry , metallurgy , crystallography , electrode , organic chemistry , engineering , composite material
The exploration of new efficient OER electrocatalysts based on nonprecious metals and the understanding of the relationship between activity and structure of electrocatalysts are important to advance electrochemical water oxidation. Herein, we developed an efficient OER electrocatalyst with nickel boride (Ni 3 B) nanoparticles as cores and nickel(II) borate (Ni‐B i ) as shells (Ni‐B i @NB) via a very simple and facile aqueous reaction. This electrocatalyst exhibited a small overpotential of 302 mV at 10 mA cm −2 and Tafel slope of 52 mV dec −1 . More interestingly, it was found that the OER activity of Ni‐B i @NB was closely dependent on the crystallinity of the Ni‐B i shells. The partially crystalline Ni‐B i catalyst exhibited much higher activity than the amorphous or crystalline analogues; this higher activity originated from the enhanced intrinsic activity of the catalytic sites. These findings open up opportunities to explore nickel(II) borates as a new class of efficient nonprecious metal OER electrocatalysts, and to improve the electrocatalyst performance by modulating their crystallinity.