Amorphous nickel hydroxide shell tailors local chemical environment on platinum surface for alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction

Chengzhang Wan; Zisheng Zhang; Juncai Dong; Mingjie Xu; Heting Pu; Daniel Baumann; Zhaoyang Lin; Sibo Wang; Jin Huang; Aamir Hassan Shah; Xiaoqing Pan; Tiandou Hu; Anastassia N Alexandrova; Yu Huang; Xiangfeng Duan

doi:10.1038/s41563-023-01584-3

Amorphous nickel hydroxide shell tailors local chemical environment on platinum surface for alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction

Nat Mater. 2023 Aug;22(8):1022-1029. doi: 10.1038/s41563-023-01584-3. Epub 2023 Jun 22.

Authors

Chengzhang Wan^{1

2}, Zisheng Zhang¹, Juncai Dong³, Mingjie Xu^{4

5}, Heting Pu¹, Daniel Baumann¹, Zhaoyang Lin¹, Sibo Wang¹, Jin Huang², Aamir Hassan Shah¹, Xiaoqing Pan^{4

5

6}, Tiandou Hu³, Anastassia N Alexandrova^{7

8

9}, Yu Huang^{10

11}, Xiangfeng Duan^{12

13}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
² Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
³ Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
⁴ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA.
⁵ Irvine Materials Research Institute, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA.
⁶ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA.
⁷ Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. ana@chem.ucla.edu.
⁸ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. ana@chem.ucla.edu.
⁹ California NanoSystems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. ana@chem.ucla.edu.
¹⁰ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. yhuang@seas.ucla.edu.
¹¹ California NanoSystems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. yhuang@seas.ucla.edu.
¹² Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. xduan@chem.ucla.edu.
¹³ California NanoSystems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. xduan@chem.ucla.edu.

PMID: 37349398
DOI: 10.1038/s41563-023-01584-3

Abstract

In analogy to natural enzymes, an elaborated design of catalytic systems with a specifically tailored local chemical environment could substantially improve reaction kinetics, effectively combat catalyst poisoning effect and boost catalyst lifetime under unfavourable reaction conditions. Here we report a unique design of 'Ni(OH)₂-clothed Pt-tetrapods' with an amorphous Ni(OH)₂ shell as a water dissociation catalyst and a proton conductive encapsulation layer to isolate the Pt core from bulk alkaline electrolyte while ensuring efficient proton supply to the active Pt sites. This design creates a favourable local chemical environment to result in acidic-like hydrogen evolution reaction kinetics with a lowest Tafel slope of 27 mV per decade and a record-high specific activity and mass activity in alkaline electrolyte. The proton conductive Ni(OH)₂ shell can also effectively reject impurity ions and retard the Oswald ripening, endowing a high tolerance to solution impurities and exceptional long-term durability that is difficult to achieve in the naked Pt catalysts. The markedly improved hydrogen evolution reaction activity and durability in an alkaline medium promise an attractive catalyst material for alkaline water electrolysers and renewable chemical fuel generation.

Grants and funding

1800580/NSF | Directorate for Mathematical & Physical Sciences | Division of Chemistry (CHE)