High-entropy NiFeCoV disulfides for enhanced alkaline water/seawater electrolysis

Changrui Feng; Meng Chen; Yifan Zhou; Zhengkun Xie; Xiumin Li; Pairuzha Xiaokaiti; Yasuki Kansha; Abuliti Abudula; Guoqing Guan

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2023.04.172

High-entropy NiFeCoV disulfides for enhanced alkaline water/seawater electrolysis

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2023 Sep:645:724-734. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.04.172. Epub 2023 May 6.

Authors

Changrui Feng¹, Meng Chen¹, Yifan Zhou², Zhengkun Xie³, Xiumin Li⁴, Pairuzha Xiaokaiti⁵, Yasuki Kansha⁶, Abuliti Abudula⁷, Guoqing Guan⁸

Affiliations

¹ Graduate School of Science and Technology, Hirosaki University, 3-Bunkyocho, Hirosaki 036-8561, Japan.
² Energy Conversion Engineering Laboratory, Institute of Regional Innovation, Hirosaki University, 3-Bunkyocho, Hirosaki 036-8561, Japan; Graduate School of Sustainable Community Studies, Hirosaki University, 1-Bunkyocho, Hirosaki 036-8560, Japan.
³ College of Chemistry, Zhengzhou University, Kexue Avenue 100, Zhengzhou, Henan 450001, China.
⁴ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China.
⁵ Frontier Laboratories Ltd., Fukushima 963-8862, Japan.
⁶ Organization for Programs on Environmental Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 3-8-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8902, Japan.
⁷ Graduate School of Science and Technology, Hirosaki University, 3-Bunkyocho, Hirosaki 036-8561, Japan. Electronic address: abuliti@hirosaki-u.ac.jp.
⁸ Graduate School of Science and Technology, Hirosaki University, 3-Bunkyocho, Hirosaki 036-8561, Japan; Energy Conversion Engineering Laboratory, Institute of Regional Innovation, Hirosaki University, 3-Bunkyocho, Hirosaki 036-8561, Japan; Graduate School of Sustainable Community Studies, Hirosaki University, 1-Bunkyocho, Hirosaki 036-8560, Japan. Electronic address: guan@hirosaki-u.ac.jp.

PMID: 37172482
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.04.172

Abstract

Creating electrocatalysts with high activity and stability to meet the needs of highly effective seawater splitting is of great importance to achieve the goal of hydrogen production from abundant seawater source, which however is still challenging owing to sluggish oxygen evolution reaction (OER) dynamics and the existed competitive chloride evolution reaction. Herein, high-entropy (NiFeCoV)S₂ porous nanosheets are uniformly fabricated on Ni foam via a hydrothermal reaction process with a sequential sulfurization step for alkaline water/seawater electrolysis. The obtained rough and porous nanosheets provide large active surface area and exposed more active sites, which can facilitate mass transfer and are conducive to the improvement of the catalytic performance. Combined with the strong synergistic electron modulation effect of multi elements in (NiFeCoV)S₂, the as-fabricated catalyst exhibits low OER overpotentials of 220 and 299 mV at 100 mA cm^-2 in alkaline water and natural seawater, respectively. Besides, the catalyst can withstand a long-term durability test for more than 50 h without hypochlorite evolution, showing excellent corrosion resistance and OER selectivity. By employing the (NiFeCoV)S₂ as the electrocatalyst for both anode and cathode to construct an overall water/seawater splitting electrolyzer, the required cell voltages are only 1.69 and 1.77 V to reach 100 mA cm^-2 in alkaline water and natural seawater, respectively, showing a promising prospect towards the practical application for efficient water/seawater electrolysis.

Keywords: Electrocatalysts; High-entropy metal sulfides; Overall water splitting electrolyzer; Seawater electrolysis; Selectivity.