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Low‐Crystalline NiS Hybridized with BiOCl Nanosheet as Highly Efficient Electrocatalyst for Dye‐Sensitized Solar Cells
Author(s) -
Sun Panpan,
Tian Liangyu,
Zuo Zhuang,
Chen Ziyu,
Huang Niu,
Sun Yihua,
Sun Xiaohua
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
chemistryselect
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.437
H-Index - 34
ISSN - 2365-6549
DOI - 10.1002/slct.201802299
Subject(s) - electrocatalyst , nanosheet , materials science , tafel equation , nickel sulfide , chemical engineering , nanoparticle , thiourea , bismuth , nanotechnology , electrode , sulfide , electrochemistry , chemistry , organic chemistry , metallurgy , engineering
Low‐crystalline nickel sulfide (NiS) nanoparticles are firstly hybridized with single‐crystalline bismuth oxychloride (BiOCl) nanosheets (denoted as NiS/BiOCl) via in‐situ pyrolysis of a NiCl 2 ‐BiCl 3 ‐thiourea precursor at low temperature (250 °C). The idea involved is to combine the functions of low‐crystalline NiS for catalyzing I 3 − to I − and BiOCl nanosheets for offering fluent charge transport pathway. Especially, in‐situ hybridization leads to close assembly and strong interaction between NiS nanoparticles and BiOCl nanosheets, further enabling the synergetic electronic coupling between the two phases. As a result, the hybrid NiS/BiOCl film can catalyze the reduction of I 3 − at an extremely low charge transfer resistance of 0.21 Ω cm 2 , versus 1.63 Ω cm 2 for Pt. When used as counter electrode for dye‐sensitized solar cells, device using NiS/BiOCl film as counter electrode produces a high power conversion efficiency of 7.88%, versus 7.35% for Pt under the same conditions. Furthermore, low‐crystalline NiS/BiOCl film can also catalyze oxygen evolution reaction with a current density of 10 mA cm −2 at 1.61 V vs. RHE and a Tafel slope of 113 mV dec −1 , which is potentially useful for many operational clean energy devices. Our study thus provides new opportunities for the development of highly efficient hybrid electrocatalyst in a facile and energy‐saving strategy.