Issue 9, 2018

A hierarchical nickel–carbon structure templated by metal–organic frameworks for efficient overall water splitting

Abstract

The development of high-performance and cost-effective catalysts for the hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions is key to efficient electrocatalysis of water, which offers a promising solution to convert and store those green but unsteady energies. Herein, we report a hierarchical nickel–carbon composite, fabricated by directly growing sheet-like Ni–MOFs on commercial nickel foam prior to high-temperature annealing, as a highly efficient bifunctional catalyst. This composite shows remarkable catalytic activities for both the hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions in an alkaline electrolyte, affording a current density of 10 mA cm−2 at an overpotential of 37 mV for the HER and 265 mV for the OER. Furthermore, an electrolyzer employing the composite as a bifunctional catalyst in both the cathode and the anode delivers a current density of 35.9 mA cm−2 at a cell voltage of 1.60 V with extended stability, which is even superior to the integrated Pt/C and RuO2 counterparts. This excellent performance is believed to be a result of a concerted synergy due to its hierarchical structure, enabling excellent reaction kinetics. Further ex situ XRD and XPS analyses reveal that while metallic nickel is responsible for the HER, Ni nanoparticles with an oxide shell encapsulated in graphitic carbon are the OER catalytically-active sites formed in situ.

Graphical abstract: A hierarchical nickel–carbon structure templated by metal–organic frameworks for efficient overall water splitting

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
30 Mar 2018
Accepted
21 Jun 2018
First published
21 Jun 2018

Energy Environ. Sci., 2018,11, 2363-2371

A hierarchical nickel–carbon structure templated by metal–organic frameworks for efficient overall water splitting

H. Sun, Y. Lian, C. Yang, L. Xiong, P. Qi, Q. Mu, X. Zhao, J. Guo, Z. Deng and Y. Peng, Energy Environ. Sci., 2018, 11, 2363 DOI: 10.1039/C8EE00934A

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements