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Low‐Temperature Synthesis of Hierarchical Amorphous Basic Nickel Carbonate Particles for Water Oxidation Catalysis
Author(s) -
Yang Yisu,
Liang Fengli,
Li Mengran,
Rufford Thomas E.,
Zhou Wei,
Zhu Zhonghua
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
chemsuschem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.412
H-Index - 157
eISSN - 1864-564X
pISSN - 1864-5631
DOI - 10.1002/cssc.201500182
Subject(s) - overpotential , nickel , tafel equation , amorphous solid , catalysis , carbonate , oxygen evolution , materials science , chemical engineering , chronoamperometry , non blocking i/o , water splitting , electrochemistry , inorganic chemistry , chemistry , metallurgy , cyclic voltammetry , organic chemistry , electrode , photocatalysis , engineering
Amorphous nickel carbonate particles are catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), which plays a critical role in the electrochemical splitting of water. The amorphous nickel carbonate particles can be prepared at a temperature as low as 60 °C by an evaporation‐induced precipitation (EIP) method. The products feature hierarchical pore structures. The mass‐normalized activity of the catalysts, measured at an overpotential of 0.35 V, was 55.1 A g −1 , with a Tafel slope of only 60 mV dec −1 . This catalytic activity is superior to the performance of crystalline NiO x particles and β‐Ni(OH) 2 particles, and compares favorably to state‐of‐the‐art RuO 2 catalysts. The activity of the amorphous nickel carbonate is remarkably stable during a 10 000 s chronoamperometry test. Further optimization of synthesis parameters reveals that the amorphous structure can be tuned by adjusting the H 2 O/Ni ratio in the precursor mixture. These results suggest the potential application of easily prepared hierarchical basic nickel carbonate particles as cheap and robust OER catalysts with high activity.