Self-Supported Ni(P, O)x·MoOx Nanowire Array on Nickel Foam as an Efficient and Durable Electrocatalyst for Alkaline Hydrogen Evolution

Wei Hua; Huanyan Liu; Jian-Gan Wang; Bingqing Wei

doi:10.3390/nano7120433

Self-Supported Ni(P, O)_x·MoO_x Nanowire Array on Nickel Foam as an Efficient and Durable Electrocatalyst for Alkaline Hydrogen Evolution

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2017 Dec 6;7(12):433. doi: 10.3390/nano7120433.

Authors

Wei Hua¹, Huanyan Liu², Jian-Gan Wang³, Bingqing Wei^{4

5}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, Center for Nano Energy Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University and Shaanxi Joint Lab of Graphene (NPU), Xi'an 710072, China. huawei@mail.nwpu.edu.cn.
² State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, Center for Nano Energy Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University and Shaanxi Joint Lab of Graphene (NPU), Xi'an 710072, China. liuhuanyan@mail.nwpu.edu.cn.
³ State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, Center for Nano Energy Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University and Shaanxi Joint Lab of Graphene (NPU), Xi'an 710072, China. wangjiangan@nwpu.edu.cn.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, Center for Nano Energy Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University and Shaanxi Joint Lab of Graphene (NPU), Xi'an 710072, China. weib@udel.edu.
⁵ Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA. weib@udel.edu.

Abstract

Earth-abundant and low-cost catalysts with excellent electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity in alkaline solution play an important role in the sustainable production of hydrogen energy. In this work, a catalyst of Ni(P, O)_x·MoO_x nanowire array on nickel foam has been prepared via a facile route for efficient alkaline HER. Benefiting from the collaborative advantages of Ni(P, O)_x and amorphous MoO_x, as well as three-dimensional porous conductive nickel scaffold, the hybrid electrocatalyst shows high catalytic activity in 1 M KOH aqueous solution, including a small overpotential of 59 mV at 10 mA cm^-2, a low Tafel slope of 54 mV dec^-1, and excellent cycling stability.

Keywords: Ni(P, O)x·MoOx nanowire array; alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction; electrocatalyst; synergistic effect.