Synergistic Effect between Metal-Nitrogen-Carbon Sheets and NiO Nanoparticles for Enhanced Electrochemical Water-Oxidation Performance

Jun Wang; Kai Li; Hai-xia Zhong; Dan Xu; Zhong-li Wang; Zheng Jiang; Zhi-jian Wu; Xin-bo Zhang

doi:10.1002/anie.201504358

Synergistic Effect between Metal-Nitrogen-Carbon Sheets and NiO Nanoparticles for Enhanced Electrochemical Water-Oxidation Performance

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2015 Sep 1;54(36):10530-4. doi: 10.1002/anie.201504358. Epub 2015 Jul 15.

Authors

Jun Wang^{1

2}, Kai Li¹, Hai-xia Zhong^{1

2}, Dan Xu¹, Zhong-li Wang¹, Zheng Jiang³, Zhi-jian Wu¹, Xin-bo Zhang⁴

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Resource Utilization, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130022 (P.R. China).
² University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049 (P.R. China).
³ Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 201204 (China).
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Resource Utilization, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130022 (P.R. China). xbzhang@ciac.ac.cn.

PMID: 26218453
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201504358

Abstract

Identifying effective means to improve the electrochemical performance of oxygen-evolution catalysts represents a significant challenge in several emerging renewable energy technologies. Herein, we consider metal-nitrogen-carbon sheets which are commonly used for catalyzing the oxygen-reduction reaction (ORR), as the support to load NiO nanoparticles for the oxygen-evolution reaction (OER). FeNC sheets, as the advanced supports, synergistically promote the NiO nanocatalysts to exhibit superior performance in alkaline media, which is confirmed by experimental observations and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Our findings show the advantages in considering the support effect for designing highly active, durable, and cost-effective OER electrocatalysts.

Keywords: electrocatalysis; metal-nitrogen-carbon sheets; nanoparticles; oxygen-evolution reaction; synergistic effect.