Oxygen evolution catalyzed by Ni-Co-Nb ternary metal sulfides on plasma-activated Ni-Co support

Linyi Zheng; Guangliang Chen; Jun Huang; Wei Chen; Ting Han; Tongtong Li; Kostya Ken Ostrikov

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2023.09.046

Oxygen evolution catalyzed by Ni-Co-Nb ternary metal sulfides on plasma-activated Ni-Co support

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2024 Jan;653(Pt A):117-128. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.09.046. Epub 2023 Sep 9.

Authors

Linyi Zheng¹, Guangliang Chen², Jun Huang³, Wei Chen³, Ting Han⁴, Tongtong Li⁵, Kostya Ken Ostrikov⁶

Affiliations

¹ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, PR China.
² Department of Materials Engineering, Huzhou University, Huzhou 313000, PR China. Electronic address: glchen@zjhu.edu.cn.
³ School of Physics and Electronic Information, Gannan Normal University, Ganzhou, Jiangxi 341000, PR China.
⁴ Department of Materials Engineering, Huzhou University, Huzhou 313000, PR China.
⁵ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, PR China. Electronic address: yitaji@zstu.edu.cn.
⁶ School of Chemistry and Physics, Centre for Materials Science, Centre for Clean Energy Technologies and Practices, Centre for Waste-free World, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, QLD 4000, Australia.

PMID: 37713910
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.09.046

Abstract

As a four-electron-proton coupled reaction, the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) requires a high overpotential for electrocatalytic water splitting. Most of the reported OER catalysts still need higher overpotentials than the thermodynamic water decomposition potential (1.23 V). Therefore, developing the efficient and cost-effective OER electrocatalysts remains a challenge in the electrocatalysis filed. Herein, multiphase Ni-Co-Nb sulfides (NiCoNbS_x) are in-situ engineered on the plasma-activated nickel-cobalt foam (PNCF), and the synthesized NiCoNbS_x/PNCF exhibits rich heterointerfaces and active sites, causing a high OER performance in an alkaline medium. The NiCoNbS_x/PNCF catalyst features the low overpotentials of 48 and 382 mV for delivering the current densities of 10 (j₁₀) and 1000 mA cm^-2 (j₁₀₀₀), with a good electrocatalytic stability. The theoretical calculations reveal that the heterojunction interface of NiS (401)-Co₉S₈ (440) acts as the active center for OER. These results provide a new effective surface modification approach and insights into catalytic processes enabling water electrolysis pursued for clean and sustainable energy applications.

Keywords: Electrocatalyst; Metal sulfides; OER; Plasma processing.