Issue 27, 2012

Mixed-solution synthesis of sea urchin-like NiSe nanofiber assemblies as economical Pt-free catalysts for electrochemical H2 production

Abstract

Nickel (Ni)-based nanomaterials have been intensively explored as promising noble-metal-free hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalysts. Here, we report that uniform sea urchin-like NiSe nanofiber assemblies can be prepared on a large scale by a ternary mixed solvent strategy. The new NiSe exhibits very high HER activity in 0.5 M H2SO4, comparable to the best performance of the well-studied MoS2 catalysts. The Tafel slope of ∼64 mV per decade was observed for the sea urchin-like NiSe catalyst, suggesting that the Volmer–Heyrovsky HER mechanism presumably takes effect in the HER. Although the stability of such a NiSe nanofiber assembled nanostructure needs to be further improved, this study addresses the benefits and possibilities of using Ni-based chalcogenides to design high performance and low cost HER catalysts.

Graphical abstract: Mixed-solution synthesis of sea urchin-like NiSe nanofiber assemblies as economical Pt-free catalysts for electrochemical H2 production

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
27 Mar 2012
Accepted
10 May 2012
First published
10 May 2012

J. Mater. Chem., 2012,22, 13662-13668

Mixed-solution synthesis of sea urchin-like NiSe nanofiber assemblies as economical Pt-free catalysts for electrochemical H2 production

M. Gao, Z. Lin, T. Zhuang, J. Jiang, Y. Xu, Y. Zheng and S. Yu, J. Mater. Chem., 2012, 22, 13662 DOI: 10.1039/C2JM31916K

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