Hierarchical 3D porous trimetallic palladium-iron and cobalt on nickel foam as electrocatalyst for large current density oxygen evolution reaction in alkaline seawater

Theophile Niyitanga; Jae Woo Choi; Haekyoung Kim

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2023.11.161

Hierarchical 3D porous trimetallic palladium-iron and cobalt on nickel foam as electrocatalyst for large current density oxygen evolution reaction in alkaline seawater

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2024 Mar:657:229-239. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.11.161. Epub 2023 Nov 27.

Authors

Theophile Niyitanga¹, Jae Woo Choi¹, Haekyoung Kim²

Affiliations

¹ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Yeungnam University, 280 Daehak-Ro, Gyeongsan 38541, South Korea.
² School of Materials Science and Engineering, Yeungnam University, 280 Daehak-Ro, Gyeongsan 38541, South Korea. Electronic address: hkkim@yu.ac.kr.

PMID: 38039883
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.11.161

Abstract

Electrolysis in seawater is a low-cost but difficult method of producing hydrogen. Herein, self-assembled hierarchical three-dimensional (3D) porous trimetallic palladium-iron and cobalt oxide anchored on a cheap and high surface area nickel foam (NF) (PdFeCo_3-xO₄/NF) were synthesized using a simple and low-cost impregnation-hydrothermal and thermal reduction strategy. The as-fabricated PdFeCo_3-xO₄/NF electrode showed both superhydrophilic and superaerophobic properties, which favored the fat removal of oxygen bubbles from the electrode surface owing to the close interaction between the electrode and electrolyte. Furthermore, the significant synergistic effect of trimetallics and the NF-matrix resulted in substantially enhanced oxygen evolution reaction (OER) intrinsic activity. The self-assembled PdFeCo_3-xO₄/NF catalyst exhibited critical low overpotentials of 300 and 340 mV to achieve an extremely large current density of 100 mA cm^-2 in 1 M KOH solution and 1 M KOH seawater. Cell voltages as low as 1.44 and 1.51 V were required to drive 10 mA cm^-2 in alkaline solution and seawater electrolytes for the full cell overall water splitting performance. This work suggests a promising strategy for developing next-generation electrocatalysts appropriate for natural seawater with cost-effective.

Keywords: Alkaline seawater; Large current density; Multimetallic electrocatalysts; Oxygen evolution reaction.