Designing core-shell heterostructure arrays based on snowflake NiCoFe-LTH shelled over W2N-WC nanowires as an advanced bi-functional electrocatalyst for boosting alkaline water/seawater electrolysis

Mohsen Abedi; Sharifeh Rezaee; Saeed Shahrokhian

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2024.04.040

Designing core-shell heterostructure arrays based on snowflake NiCoFe-LTH shelled over W₂N-WC nanowires as an advanced bi-functional electrocatalyst for boosting alkaline water/seawater electrolysis

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2024 Jul 15:666:307-321. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2024.04.040. Epub 2024 Apr 6.

Authors

Mohsen Abedi¹, Sharifeh Rezaee¹, Saeed Shahrokhian²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran 11155-9516, Iran.
² Department of Chemistry, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran 11155-9516, Iran. Electronic address: shahrokhian@sharif.edu.

PMID: 38603874
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2024.04.040

Abstract

The pursuit of efficient and sustainable hydrogen production through water splitting has led to intensive research in the field of electrocatalysis. However, the impediment posed by sluggish reaction kinetics has served as a significant barrier. This challenge has inspired the development of electrocatalysts characterized by high activity, abundance in earth's resources, and long-term stability. In addressing this obstacle, it is imperative to meticulously fine-tune the structure, morphology, and electronic state of electrocatalysts. By systematically manipulating these key parameters, the full potential of electrocatalysts can unleash, enhancing their catalytic activity and overall performance. Hence in this study, a novel heterostructure is designed, showcasing core-shell architectures achieved by covering W₂N-WC nanowire arrays with tri-metallic Nickel-Cobalt-Iron layered triple hydroxide nanosheets on carbon felt support (NiCoFe-LTH/W₂N-WC/CF). By integrating the different virtue such as binder free electrode design, synergistic effect between different components, core-shell structural advantages, high exposed active sites, high electrical conductivity and heterostructure design, NiCoFe-LTH/W₂N-WC/CF demonstrates striking catalytic performances under alkaline conditions. The substantiation of all the mentioned advantages has been validated through electrochemical data in this study. According to these results NiCoFe-LTH/W₂N-WC/CF achieves a current density of 10 mA cm^-2 needs overpotential values of 101 mV for HER and 206 mV for OER, respectively. Moreover, as a bi-functional electrocatalyst for overall water splitting, a two-electrode device needs a voltage of 1.543 V and 1.569 V to reach a current density of 10 mA cm^-2 for alkaline water and alkaline seawater electrolysis, respectively. Briefly, this research with attempting to combination of different factors try to present a promising stride towards advancing bi-functional catalytic activity with tailored architectures for practical green hydrogen production via electrochemical water splitting process.

Keywords: Bi-functional electrocatalyst; Core-shell nanostructure; Heterostructure; LTH nanosheet; Tungsten carbide; Tungsten nitride; Water splitting.