In Situ Sonoactivation of Polycrystalline Ni for the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction in Alkaline Media

Faranak Foroughi; Marina Tintor; Alaa Y Faid; Svein Sunde; Gregory Jerkiewicz; Christophe Coutanceau; Bruno G Pollet

doi:10.1021/acsaem.2c02443

In Situ Sonoactivation of Polycrystalline Ni for the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction in Alkaline Media

ACS Appl Energy Mater. 2023 Apr 21;6(9):4520-4529. doi: 10.1021/acsaem.2c02443. eCollection 2023 May 8.

Authors

Faranak Foroughi¹, Marina Tintor², Alaa Y Faid³, Svein Sunde³, Gregory Jerkiewicz^{2

1}, Christophe Coutanceau^{1

4

5

6}, Bruno G Pollet^{1

6}

Affiliations

¹ Hydrogen Energy and Sonochemistry Research Group, Department of Energy and Process Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim NO-7491, Norway.
² Department of Chemistry, Queen's University, 90 Bader Lane, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada.
³ Electrochemistry Research Group, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim NO-7491, Norway.
⁴ Catalysis and Non-Conventional Medium group, IC2MP, UMR CNRS 7285, Université de Poitiers, 4 Rue Michel Brunet, 86073 Cedex 9 Poitiers, France.
⁵ French Research Network on Hydrogen (FRH2), Research Federation n°2044 CNRS, BP 32229, 44322 Nantes CEDEX 3, France.
⁶ Green Hydrogen Lab, Institute for Hydrogen Research, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, 3351 Boulevard des Forges, Trois-Rivières, Québec G9A 5H7, Canada.

Abstract

In this investigation, we report on the development of a method for activating polycrystalline metallic nickel (Ni(poly)) surfaces toward the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in N₂-saturated 1.0 M KOH aqueous electrolyte through continuous and pulsed ultrasonication (24 kHz, 44 ± 1.40 W, 60% acoustic amplitude, ultrasonic horn). It is found that ultrasonically activated Ni shows an improved HER activity with a much lower overpotential of -275 mV vs RHE at -10.0 mA cm^-2 when compared to nonultrasonically activated Ni. It was observed that the ultrasonic pretreatment is a time-dependent process that gradually changes the oxidation state of Ni and longer ultrasonication times result in higher HER activity as compared to untreated Ni. This study highlights a straightforward strategy for activating nickel-based materials by ultrasonic treatment for the electrochemical water splitting reaction.