Quaternary (Fe/Ni)(P/S) mesoporous nanorods templated on stainless steel mesh lead to stable oxygen evolution reaction for over two months

Mengqi Yao; Haohui Hu; Ni Wang; Wencheng Hu; Sridhar Komarneni

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2019.11.032

Quaternary (Fe/Ni)(P/S) mesoporous nanorods templated on stainless steel mesh lead to stable oxygen evolution reaction for over two months

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2020 Mar 1:561:576-584. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2019.11.032. Epub 2019 Nov 11.

Authors

Mengqi Yao¹, Haohui Hu¹, Ni Wang², Wencheng Hu³, Sridhar Komarneni⁴

Affiliations

¹ Center for Applied Chemistry, University of Electronic Science & Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China.
² Center for Applied Chemistry, University of Electronic Science & Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China; Materials Research Institute and Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, 204 Energy and the Environment Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
³ Center for Applied Chemistry, University of Electronic Science & Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China. Electronic address: huwc@uestc.edu.cn.
⁴ Materials Research Institute and Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, 204 Energy and the Environment Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA. Electronic address: sxk7@psu.edu.

PMID: 31744612
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2019.11.032

Abstract

Synthesis of mesoporous (Fe/Ni)(P/S) dendritic nanorods on commercial 304L stainless steel mesh (SSM) was accomplished by initial anodic oxidation and subsequent co-sulfuration/phosphorization process. The mesoporous (Fe/Ni)(P/S) dendritic nanorods were obtained as a freestanding and stable catalyst for oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The mechanism of formation of mesoprous structure with nanorods is due to in-situ removal of Cr atoms (from the hard template of SSM) while the O₂ bubbles released during OER served as dynamic bubble template (soft template). The as-prepared sample exhibited overpotentials of 173 mV at 10 mA cm^-2 and 270 mV at 100 mA cm^-2, which exceeded those that were recently reported using surface modified stainless steel-based catalysts for OER in alkaline condition. Moreover, the (Fe/Ni)(P/S) nanorods showed a remarkable Tafel slope of 65.7 mV dec^-1 with stable activity beyond two months with only 2.5% fluctuation. The above outstanding performance could be attributed to the unique morphology with highly exposed active sites and the control of electronic structure by co-treatment with P and S. This work presents an efficient way to modify SSM for use as an inexpensive and durable OER catalyst.

Keywords: Low overpotential; Oxygen evolution reaction; Quaternary mesoporous nanorods; Stable activity; Stainless steel mesh.