Highly efficient and durable Ni-Fe alloy catalyst towards OER via one-step electrodeposition

Abstract We propose here a facile and readily scalable method to fabricate highly efficient and durable electrocatalyst towards oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Using common nickel mesh as a substrate, Ni-Fe alloy with hierarchical pores is formed in-situ via one-step electrodeposition. The electrodeposition of Ni and Fe is accompanied by hydrogen evolution, the generated hydrogen bubble facilitate the formation of hierarchically porous structure. The particular porous structure of the Ni-Fe alloy is beneficial to OER in terms of charge transfer and gas bubble release. For this structure is formed under a very similar condition, i.e., gas evolution, it adapts well when working on OER. The Ni-Fe alloy catalyst with 15% Fe shows the best performance of an overpotential of 210 mV at 10 mA·cm^-2 and a low Tafel slop of 35 mV·dec^-1. Furthermore, the Ni-Fe alloy catalyst presents remarkable durability under industrial alkaline water electrolysis conditions for 250 h. Therefore, the hierarchically porous Ni-Fe alloy prepared via one-step electrodeposition is a promising OER catalyst in alkaline water electrolysis.

	Service

	Email this article
	Add to my bookshelf
	Add to citation manager
	Email Alert
	RSS
	Articles by authors
	GE Sheng
	MIN Luofu
	FEI Hongda
	JI Dinghao
	WANG Yuxin

Keywords： Ni-Fe alloy； oxygen evolution reaction； alkaline water electrolysis； electrodeposition； Ni mesh

Received 2021-03-03;

About author:

Cite this article:

GE Sheng, MIN Luofu, FEI Hongda, JI Dinghao, WANG Yuxin.Highly efficient and durable Ni-Fe alloy catalyst towards OER via one-step electrodeposition[J] Chemcial Industry and Engineering, 2022,V39(2): 41-49

[1] ABE J O, POPOOLA A P I, AJENIFUJA E, et al. Hydrogen energy, economy and storage:Review and recommendation[J]. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 2019, 44(29):15072-15086
[2] DAWOOD F, ANDA M, SHAFIULLAH G M. Hydrogen production for energy:An overview[J]. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 2020, 45(7):3847-3869
[3] 常进法, 肖瑶, 罗兆艳, 等. 水电解制氢非贵金属催化剂的研究进展[J]. 物理化学学报, 2016, 32(7):1556-1592 CHANG Jinfa, XIAO Yao, LUO Zhaoyan, et al. Recent progress of non-noble metal catalysts in water electrolysis for hydrogen production[J]. Acta Physico-Chimica Sinica, 2016, 32(7):1556-1592(in Chinese)
[4] ZOU X, ZHANG Y. Noble metal-free hydrogen evolution catalysts for water splitting[J]. Chemical Society Reviews, 2015, 44(15):5148-5180
[5] URSUA A, GANDIA L M, SANCHIS P. Hydrogen production from water electrolysis:Current status and future trends[J]. Proceedings of the IEEE, 2012, 100(2):410-426
[6] XU B, ZHANG Y, PI Y, et al. Research progress of nickel-based metal-organic frameworks and their derivatives for oxygen evolution catalysis[J]. Acta Physico Chimica Sinica, 2020, doi:10.3866/PKU.WHXB202009074
[7] XUAN C, WANG J, ZHU J, et al. Recent progress of metal organic frameworks-based nanomaterials for electrocatalysis[J]. Acta Physico-Chimica Sin, 2017, 33(1):149-164
[8] MCCRORY C C, JUNG S, FERRER I M, et al. Benchmarking hydrogen evolving reaction and oxygen evolving reaction electrocatalysts for solar water splitting devices[J]. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2015, 137(13):4347-4357
[9] ZENG K, ZHANG D. Recent progress in alkaline water electrolysis for hydrogen production and applications[J]. Progress in Energy and Combustion Science, 2010, 36(3):307-326
[10] FU S, SONG J, ZHU C, et al. Ultrafine and highly disordered Ni₂Fe₁ nanofoams enabled highly efficient oxygen evolution reaction in alkaline electrolyte[J]. Nano Energy, 2018, 44:319-326
[11] WANG C, YANG H, ZHANG Y, et al. NiFe alloy nanoparticles with hcp crystal structure stimulate superior oxygen evolution reaction electrocatalytic activity[J]. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2019, 58(18):6099-6103
[12] PI Y, SHAO Q, WANG P, et al. Trimetallic oxyhydroxide coralloids for efficient oxygen evolution electrocatalysis[J]. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2017, 56(16):4502-4506
[13] WANG P, WAN L, LIN Y, et al. NiFe hydroxide supported on hierarchically porous nickel mesh as a high-performance bifunctional electrocatalyst for water splitting at large current density[J]. ChemSusChem, 2019, 12(17):4038-4045
[14] GONG M, LI Y, WANG H, et al. An advanced Ni-Fe layered double hydroxide electrocatalyst for water oxidation[J]. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2013, 135(23):8452-8455
[15] FRIEBEL D, LOUIE M W, BAJDICH M, et al. Identification of highly active Fe sites in (Ni, Fe)OOH for electrocatalytic water splitting[J]. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2015, 137(3):1305-1313
[16] GAO M, SHENG W, ZHUANG Z, et al. Efficient water oxidation using nanostructured α-nickel-hydroxide as an electrocatalyst[J]. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2014, 136(19):7077-7084
[17] BURKE M S, KAST M G, TROTOCHAUD L, et al. Cobalt-iron (oxy)hydroxide oxygen evolution electrocatalysts:The role of structure and composition on activity, stability, and mechanism[J]. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2015, 137(10):3638-3648
[18] WU G, CHEN W, ZHENG X, et al. Hierarchical Fe-doped NiO_x nanotubes assembled from ultrathin nanosheets containing trivalent nickel for oxygen evolution reaction[J]. Nano Energy, 2017, 38:167-174
[19] TROTOCHAUD L, RANNEY J K, WILLIAMS K N, et al. Solution-cast metal oxide thin film electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution[J]. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2012, 134(41):17253-17261
[20] LI P, ZENG H. Sandwich-like nanocomposite of CoNiO_x/reduced graphene oxide for enhanced electrocatalytic water oxidation[J]. Advanced Functional Materials, 2017, doi:10.1002/adfm.201606325
[21] ZHAO X, SHANG X, QUAN Y, et al. Electrodeposition-solvothermal access to ternary mixed metal Ni-Co-Fe sulfides for highly efficient electrocatalytic water oxidation in alkaline media[J]. Electrochimica Acta, 2017, 230:151-159
[22] DONG B, ZHAO X, HAN G, et al. Two-step synthesis of binary Ni-Fe sulfides supported on nickel foam as highly efficient electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction[J]. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 2016, 4(35):13499-13508
[23] LUO P, SUN F, DENG J, et al. Tree-like NiS-Ni₃S₂/NF heterostructure array and its application in oxygen evolution reaction[J]. Acta Physico-Chimica Sinica, 2018, 34(12):1397-1404
[24] YIN Z, ZHU C, LI C, et al. Hierarchical nickel-cobalt phosphide yolk-shell spheres as highly active and stable bifunctional electrocatalysts for overall water splitting[J]. Nanoscale, 2016, 8(45):19129-19138
[25] SONG D, HONG D, KWON Y, et al. Highly porous Ni-P electrode synthesized by an ultrafast electrodeposition process for efficient overall water electrolysis[J]. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 2020, 8(24):12069-12079
[26] GONG M, DAI H. A mini review of NiFe-based materials as highly active oxygen evolution reaction electrocatalysts[J]. Nano Research, 2015, 8(1):23-39
[27] ZHAO J, ZHANG J, LI Z, et al. Recent progress on NiFe-based electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction[J]. Small (Weinheim an Der Bergstrasse, Germany), 2020, doi:10.1002/smll.202003916
[28] LI D, KOIKE M, WANG L, et al. Regenerability of hydrotalcite-derived nickel-iron alloy nanoparticles for syngas production from biomass tar[J]. ChemSusChem, 2014, 7(2):510-522
[29] MERKI D, VRUBEL H, ROVELLI L, et al. Fe, Co, and Ni ions promote the catalytic activity of amorphous molybdenum sulfide films for hydrogen evolution[J]. Chemical Science, 2012, 3(8):2515-2525
[30] LOUIE M W, BELL A T. An investigation of thin-film Ni-Fe oxide catalysts for the electrochemical evolution of oxygen[J]. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2013, 135(33):12329-12337
[31] LIU Z, TANG B, GU X, et al. Selective structure transformation for NiFe/NiFe₂O₄ embedded porous nitrogen-doped carbon nanosphere with improved oxygen evolution reaction activity[J]. Chemical Engineering Journal, 2020, doi:10.1016/j.cej.2020.125170
[32] JIA X, ZHAO Y, CHEN G, et al. Ni₃FeN nanoparticles derived from ultrathin NiFe-layered double hydroxide nanosheets:An efficient overall water splitting electrocatalyst[J]. Advanced Energy Materials, 2016, doi:10.1002/aenm.201502585
[33] LIU G, HE D, YAO R, et al. Amorphous NiFeB nanoparticles realizing highly active and stable oxygen evolving reaction for water splitting[J]. Nano Research, 2018, 11(3):1664-1675
[34] SHI R, WANG J, WANG Z, et al. Unique NiFeNiCoO₂ hollow polyhedron as bifunctional electrocatalysts for water splitting[J]. Journal of Energy Chemistry, 2019, 33:74-80
[35] LIU G, YAO R, ZHAO Y, et al. Encapsulation of Ni/Fe₃O₄ heterostructures inside onion-like N-doped carbon nanorods enables synergistic electrocatalysis for water oxidation[J]. Nanoscale, 2018, 10(8):3997-4003
[36] CHE Q, LI Q, TAN Y, et al. One-step controllable synthesis of amorphous (Ni-Fe)S_x/NiFe(OH)_y hollow microtube/sphere films as superior bifunctional electrocatalysts for quasi-industrial water splitting at large-current-density[J]. Applied Catalysis B:Environmental, 2019, 246:337-348
[37] ZHU K, LI M, LI X, et al. Enhancement of oxygen evolution performance through synergetic action between NiFe metal core and NiFeO_x shell[J]. Chemical Communications, 2016, 52(79):11803-11806