Promotion of hydrogen evolution from seawater via poly(aniline-co-4-nitroaniline) combined with 3D nickel nanoparticles

Saleh Moradi-Alavian; Amir Kazempour; Meysam Mirzaei-Saatlo; Habib Ashassi-Sorkhabi; Abbas Mehrdad; Elnaz Asghari; Jacob J Lamb; Bruno G Pollet

doi:10.1038/s41598-023-48355-3

Promotion of hydrogen evolution from seawater via poly(aniline-co-4-nitroaniline) combined with 3D nickel nanoparticles

Sci Rep. 2023 Dec 6;13(1):21486. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-48355-3.

Authors

Saleh Moradi-Alavian¹, Amir Kazempour¹, Meysam Mirzaei-Saatlo¹, Habib Ashassi-Sorkhabi¹, Abbas Mehrdad², Elnaz Asghari³, Jacob J Lamb^{4

5}, Bruno G Pollet⁶

Affiliations

¹ Electrochemistry Research Laboratory, Department of Physical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran.
² Department of Physical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran.
³ Electrochemistry Research Laboratory, Department of Physical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran. elnazasghari@yahoo.com.
⁴ Hydrogen Energy and Sonochemistry Research Group, Department of Energy and Process Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), NO-7491, Trondheim, Norway.
⁵ Department of Energy and Process Engineering & ENERSENSE, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), NO-7491, Trondheim, Norway.
⁶ Green Hydrogen Lab, Institute for Hydrogen Research (IHR), Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR), 3351 Boulevard des Forges, Trois-Rivières, QC, G9A 5H7, Canada.

Abstract

This work reports the synthesis of poly (aniline-co-4-nitroaniline) deposited on a three-dimensional nanostructured nickel (3D-Ni) film, where both layers were fabricated via potentiostatic electrodeposition. The obtained electrocatalyst exhibited excellent electrochemical activity for the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction (HER) with small overpotentials of - 195 and - 325 mV at - 10 and - 100 mAcm^-2, respectively, and a low Tafel slope of 53.3 mV dec^-1 in seawater. Additionally, the electrocatalyst exhibited good stability after 72 h operation under a constant potential of - 1.9 V vs. RHE. The efficient HER performance of the as-prepared catalyst was found to originate from the synergy between the conducting polymer and three-dimensional nickel nanoparticles with a large electrochemical active surface area. Moreover, the results obtained from electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements revealed that the presence of 3D-Ni layer improved the kinetics of HER by reducing the charge transfer resistance for the electrocatalyst.