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Mesoporous WC x Films with NiO‐Protected Surface: Highly Active Electrocatalysts for the Alkaline Oxygen Evolution Reaction
Author(s) -
Frisch Marvin,
Ye MengYang,
Hamid Raza Muhammad,
Arinchtein Aleks,
Bernsmeier Denis,
Gomer Anna,
Bredow Thomas,
Pinicola,
Kraehnert Ralph
Publication year - 2021
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.202101243
Subject(s) - non blocking i/o , mesoporous material , materials science , oxygen evolution , chemical engineering , tungsten carbide , catalysis , nickel oxide , electrolyte , oxide , inorganic chemistry , nickel , electrolysis , chemistry , electrode , electrochemistry , metallurgy , organic chemistry , engineering
Metal carbides are promising materials for electrocatalytic reactions such as water electrolysis. However, for application in catalysis for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), protection against oxidative corrosion, a high surface area with facile electrolyte access, and control over the exposed active surface sites are highly desirable. This study concerns a new method for the synthesis of porous tungsten carbide films with template‐controlled porosity that are surface‐modified with thin layers of nickel oxide (NiO) to obtain active and stable OER catalysts. The method relies on the synthesis of soft‐templated mesoporous tungsten oxide (mp. WO x ) films, a pseudomorphic transformation into mesoporous tungsten carbide (mp. WC x ), and a subsequent shape‐conformal deposition of finely dispersed NiO species by atomic layer deposition (ALD). As theoretically predicted by density functional theory (DFT) calculations, the highly conductive carbide support promotes the conversion of Ni 2+ into Ni 3+ , leading to remarkably improved utilization of OER‐active sites in alkaline medium. The obtained Ni mass‐specific activity is about 280 times that of mesoporous NiO x (mp. NiO x ) films. The NiO‐coated WC x catalyst achieves an outstanding mass‐specific activity of 1989 A g Ni −1 in a rotating‐disc electrode (RDE) setup at 25 °C using 0.1 m KOH as the electrolyte.