Vertical 3D Nanostructures Boost Efficient Hydrogen Production Coupled with Glycerol Oxidation Under Alkaline Conditions

Shanlin Li; Danmin Liu; Guowei Wang; Peijie Ma; Xunlu Wang; Jiacheng Wang; Ruguang Ma

doi:10.1007/s40820-023-01150-1

Vertical 3D Nanostructures Boost Efficient Hydrogen Production Coupled with Glycerol Oxidation Under Alkaline Conditions

Nanomicro Lett. 2023 Jul 29;15(1):189. doi: 10.1007/s40820-023-01150-1.

Authors

Shanlin Li^{1

2}, Danmin Liu³, Guowei Wang¹, Peijie Ma¹, Xunlu Wang², Jiacheng Wang^{4

5

6}, Ruguang Ma⁷

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Materials, Ministry of Education, Faculty of Materials and Manufacturing, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, 100124, People's Republic of China.
² The State Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructure, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200050, People's Republic of China.
³ Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Materials, Ministry of Education, Faculty of Materials and Manufacturing, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, 100124, People's Republic of China. dmliu@bjut.edu.cn.
⁴ The State Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructure, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200050, People's Republic of China. jiacheng.wang@mail.sic.ac.cn.
⁵ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Taizhou University, Taizhou, 318000, People's Republic of China. jiacheng.wang@mail.sic.ac.cn.
⁶ Hebei Provincial Key Laboratory of Inorganic Nonmetallic Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, North China University of Science and Technology, Tanshang, 063210, People's Republic of China. jiacheng.wang@mail.sic.ac.cn.
⁷ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, 99 Xuefu Road, Suzhou, 215011, People's Republic of China. ruguangma@usts.edu.cn.

Abstract

Hydrogen production from electrolytic water is an important sustainable technology to realize renewable energy conversion and carbon neutrality. However, it is limited by the high overpotential of oxygen evolution reaction (OER) at the anode. To reduce the operating voltage of electrolyzer, herein thermodynamically favorable glycerol oxidation reaction (GOR) is proposed to replace the OER. Moreover, vertical NiO flakes and NiMoNH nanopillars are developed to boost the reaction kinetics of anodic GOR and cathodic hydrogen evolution, respectively. Meanwhile, excluding the explosion risk of mixed H₂/O₂, a cheap organic membrane is used to replace the expensive anion exchange membrane in the electrolyzer. Impressively, the electrolyzer delivers a remarkable reduction of operation voltage by 280 mV, and exhibits good long-term stability. This work provides a new paradigm of hydrogen production with low cost and good feasibility.

Keywords: Flow cell; Glycerol oxidation reaction; Hydrogen evolution reaction; Nanostructure; Oxygen evolution reaction.