Controllable Synthesis of a Loofah-Like Cobalt-Nickel Selenide Network as an Efficient Electrocatalyst for the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Yanxia Liu; Zhangmin Tian; Qiuchen Xu; Yaxiong Yang; Yiteng Zheng; Hongge Pan; Jian Chen; Zhen Wang; Wenjun Zheng

doi:10.1021/acsami.1c21422

Controllable Synthesis of a Loofah-Like Cobalt-Nickel Selenide Network as an Efficient Electrocatalyst for the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2022 Feb 23;14(7):8963-8973. doi: 10.1021/acsami.1c21422. Epub 2022 Feb 9.

Authors

Yanxia Liu^{1

2}, Zhangmin Tian², Qiuchen Xu², Yaxiong Yang¹, Yiteng Zheng³, Hongge Pan¹, Jian Chen¹, Zhen Wang⁴, Wenjun Zheng^{2

5}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Science and Technology for New Energy, Xi'an Technological University, Xi'an 710021, China.
² Department of Chemistry, Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry (MOE), TKL of Metal and Molecule-based Material Chemistry, College of Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, P. R. China.
³ Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, United States.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Materials Processing and Mold (Zhengzhou University), Ministry of Education, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450002, P. R. China.
⁵ Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, P. R. China.

PMID: 35138078
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.1c21422

Abstract

The rational design and construction of noble metal-free electrocatalysts featuring high efficiency and low cost are important for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). A significant development in the synthesis of a loofah-like Co_0.6Ni_0.4Se₂ architecture (expressed as Co_0.6Ni_0.4Se₂-LN) electrocatalyst on carbon cloth through a three-step method is reported. Both the ionic liquid 1-dodecyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate (IL, [C₁₂MIm]Ac) and the molar ratio of Co to Ni play a pivotal role in the synthesis of Co_0.6Ni_0.4Se₂-LN with 3D hierarchical architecture. Co_0.6Ni_0.4Se₂-LN exposes abundant active sites and provides hierarchical and stable transfer channels for both electrolyte ions and electrons, which results in outstanding HER performance. Impressively, Co_0.6Ni_0.4Se₂-LN shows a low overpotential of 163 mV at 10 mA cm^-2, a small Tafel slope of 40 mV dec^-1, and superior stability to continuously catalyze the generation of H₂ for 40 h. This study offers a new perspective to the synthesis of high-efficiency inexpensive electrocatalysts for HER and also presents a good example for investigating the potential application of ILs in the synthesis of functional materials.

Keywords: 3D hierarchical architectures; cobalt−nickel selenide; electrocatalysts; hydrogen evolution reaction; ionic liquids.