Bi-cation incorporated Ni3N nanosheets boost water dissociation kinetics for enhanced alkaline hydrogen evolution activity

Yu-Wen Hu; Fozia Sultana; M-Sadeeq Balogun; Tuzhi Xiong; Yongchao Huang; Yu Xia

doi:10.1039/d3nr05957j

Bi-cation incorporated Ni₃N nanosheets boost water dissociation kinetics for enhanced alkaline hydrogen evolution activity

Nanoscale. 2024 Feb 22;16(8):4325-4332. doi: 10.1039/d3nr05957j.

Authors

Yu-Wen Hu¹, Fozia Sultana¹, M-Sadeeq Balogun¹, Tuzhi Xiong², Yongchao Huang³, Yu Xia⁴

Affiliations

¹ College of Materials Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China. balogun@hnu.edu.cn.
² School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, University of South China, Hengyang, 421001, China. 2023002058@usc.edu.cn.
³ Institute of Environmental Research at Greater Bay, Key Laboratory for Water Quality and Conservation of the Pearl River Delta, Ministry of Education, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, P. R. China.
⁴ Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Guangzhou First People's Hospital, School of Medicine, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510180, China. eyyuxia@scut.edu.cn.

PMID: 38357773
DOI: 10.1039/d3nr05957j

Abstract

Nickel nitride (Ni₃N) is a promising electrocatalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) owing to its excellent metallic features and has been demonstrated to exhibit considerable activity for water oxidation. However, its undesirable characteristics as an HER electrocatalyst due to its poor unfavourable d-band energy level significantly limit its water dissociation kinetics. Herein, the HER electrocatalytic activity of Ni₃N was prominently enhanced via the simultaneous incorporation of bi-cations (vanadium (V) and iron (Fe), denoted as V-Fe-Ni₃N). The optimized V-Fe-Ni₃N displays impressive performance with an overpotential of 69 mV at 10 mA cm^-2 and good stability in 1.0 M KOH, which is remarkably better than pristine Ni₃N, V-doped Ni₃N, and Fe-doped Ni₃N and considerably closer to a commercial Pt/C catalyst. Based on density functional theory (DFT) studies, V and Fe atoms not only serve as active sites for promoting water dissociation kinetics but also tune the electronic structure of Ni₃N to achieve optimized hydrogen adsorption capabilities. This work presents an inclusive understanding of the rational designing of high-performance transition metal nitride-based electrocatalysts for hydrogen production. Its electrocatalytic performance can be significantly enhanced by doping transition metal cations.