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Unconventional Nickel Nitride Enriched with Nitrogen Vacancies as a High-Efficiency Electrocatalyst for Hydrogen
Bin Liu1, Bin He1,2, Hui-Qing Peng3
1Center of Super-Diamond and Advanced Films (COSDAF) & Department of Materials Science and Engineering City University of Hong Kong Tat Chee Avenue Kowloon Hong Kong China.
Advanced Science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany)
|August 22, 2018
Summary
Researchers developed a novel nickel nitride nanostructure with nitrogen vacancies for efficient hydrogen production. This cost-effective catalyst shows performance competitive with platinum for the hydrogen evolution reaction in alkaline solutions.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Electrochemistry
- Catalysis
Background:
- Developing efficient and affordable non-noble metal electrocatalysts is crucial for green hydrogen production via electrolysis.
- Nickel-based materials are promising alternatives to precious metal catalysts for hydrogen evolution reactions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To synthesize a novel nickel nitride nanostructure with nitrogen vacancies for enhanced hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity.
- To investigate the electrocatalytic performance of the developed material in alkaline media.
- To elucidate the role of nitrogen vacancies in improving HER activity through theoretical calculations.
Main Methods:
- Plasma-enhanced nitridation of commercial nickel foam (NF) to create nitrogen-deficient nickel nitride (Ni3N1-x).
- Electrochemical characterization of the Ni3N1-x/NF electrode for HER activity in alkaline conditions.
- Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations to understand the mechanism of enhanced HER activity.
Main Results:
- The synthesized Ni3N1-x/NF electrode exhibited excellent HER activity in alkaline media, with an overpotential of 55 mV at 10 mA cm-2 and a Tafel slope of 54 mV dec-1.
- The performance was competitive with commercial platinum/carbon (Pt/C) catalysts and superior to stoichiometric Ni3N.
- Theoretical calculations confirmed that nitrogen vacancies improve water adsorption and hydrogen adsorption-desorption kinetics, leading to enhanced HER performance.
Conclusions:
- The nitrogen-deficient nickel nitride nanostructure (Ni3N1-x/NF) is a highly effective and cost-efficient electrocatalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction in alkaline environments.
- The strategy of introducing nitrogen vacancies offers a promising pathway for designing advanced non-noble metal electrocatalysts for hydrogen energy applications.
- This work presents a significant advancement in nitride-based HER electrocatalysts, achieving state-of-the-art performance in alkaline media.
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