Self-Assembled Coral-like Hierarchical Architecture Constructed by NiSe2 Nanocrystals with Comparable Hydrogen-Evolution Performance of Precious Platinum Catalyst

Bo Yu; Xinqiang Wang; Fei Qi; Binjie Zheng; Jiarui He; Jie Lin; Wanli Zhang; Yanrong Li; Yuanfu Chen

doi:10.1021/acsami.6b15719

Self-Assembled Coral-like Hierarchical Architecture Constructed by NiSe₂ Nanocrystals with Comparable Hydrogen-Evolution Performance of Precious Platinum Catalyst

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2017 Mar 1;9(8):7154-7159. doi: 10.1021/acsami.6b15719. Epub 2017 Feb 15.

Authors

Bo Yu¹, Xinqiang Wang¹, Fei Qi¹, Binjie Zheng¹, Jiarui He¹, Jie Lin¹, Wanli Zhang¹, Yanrong Li¹, Yuanfu Chen¹

Affiliation

¹ State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Films and Integrated Devices, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China , Chengdu 610054, People's Republic of China.

PMID: 28156090
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.6b15719

Abstract

For the first time, self-assembled coral-like hierarchical architecture constructed by NiSe₂ nanocrystals has been synthesized via a facile one-pot DMF-solvothermal method. Compared with hydrothermally synthesized NiSe₂ (H-NiSe₂), the DMF-solvothermally synthesized nanocrystalline NiSe₂ (DNC-NiSe₂) exhibits superior performance of hydrogen evolution reaction (HER): it has a very low onset overpotential of ∼136 mV (vs RHE), a very high cathode current density of 40 mA/cm² at ∼200 mV (vs RHE), and an excellent long-term stability; most importantly, it delivers an ultrasmall Tafel slope of 29.4 mV dec^-1, which is the lowest ever reported for NiSe₂-based catalysts, and even lower than that of precious platinum (Pt) catalyst (30.8 mV dec^-1). The superior HER performance of DNC-NiSe₂ is attributed to the unique self-assembled coral-like network, which is a benefit to form abundant active sites and facilitates the charge transportation due to the inherent high conductivity of NiSe₂ nanocrystals. The DNC-NiSe₂ is promising to be a viable alternative to precious metal catalysts for hydrogen evolution.

Keywords: NiSe2 nanocrystals; electrocatalytic activity; hydrogen evolution reaction; nickel dichalcogenide; solvothermal reaction; transition metal dichalcogenide; ultrasmall Tafel slope.