An enhanced electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction by the photothermal effect and its induced micro-electric field

Feng Duan; Qian Zou; Junzhe Li; Xiaozhi Yuan; Xun Cui; Chuan Jing; Shengrong Tao; Xijun Wei; Huichao He; Yingze Song

doi:10.1039/d4nr00170b

An enhanced electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction by the photothermal effect and its induced micro-electric field

Nanoscale. 2024 Mar 21;16(12):6278-6285. doi: 10.1039/d4nr00170b.

Authors

Feng Duan¹, Qian Zou¹, Junzhe Li¹, Xiaozhi Yuan¹, Xun Cui², Chuan Jing³, Shengrong Tao³, Xijun Wei¹, Huichao He⁴, Yingze Song¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Environment-Friendly Energy Materials, School of Materials and Chemistry, Engineering Research Center of Biomass Materials, Ministry of Education, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang 621010, P. R. China. xijunwei1992@swust.edu.cn.
² State Key Laboratory of New Textile Materials and Advanced Processing Technologies, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan 430200, P. R. China.
³ College of Science, Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Chongqing 400065, P. R. China.
⁴ Institute of Environmental Energy Materials and Intelligent Devices, School of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Chongqing University of Science and Technology, Chongqing 401331, P. R. China. hehuichao@cqust.edu.cn.

PMID: 38451198
DOI: 10.1039/d4nr00170b

Abstract

Promoting better thermodynamics and kinetics of electrocatalysts is key to achieving an efficient electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Utilizing the photothermal effect and micro-electric field of electrocatalysts is a promising approach to promote the sluggish OER. Herein, to reveal the relationship of the photothermal effect and its induced micro-electric field with OER performance, NiS_x coupled NiFe(OH)_y on nickel foam (NiS_x@NiFe(OH)_y/NF) is synthesized and subjected to the OER under near-infrared (NIR) light. Owing to the photothermal effect and its induced micro-electric field, the OER performance of NiS_x@NiFe(OH)_y/NF is significantly enhanced. Compared with no NIR light irradiation, the overpotential at 50 mA cm^-2 and the Tafel slope of NiS_x@NiFe(OH)_y/NF under NIR light irradiation were 234.1 mV and 38.0 mV dec^-1, which were lower by 12.4 mV and 7.1 mV dec^-1, and it exhibited stable operation at 1.6 V vs. RHE for 8 h with 99% activity maintained. This work presents a novel inspiration to understand the photothermal effect-enhanced electrocatalytic OER.